Fallen Phoenix
by HufflepufflikeSlytherin
Summary: The manipulations of Albus Dumbledore have gone too far this time. An abused, seven year old Harry Potter is left, beaten in his cupboard. Cue Severus Snape. Dumbledore/Weasley bashing. Abused!Harry. Severus/Harry Mentorfic. Rated for violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey this is my first story on here. Hope you like it.**

**I am willing to take input on pairings and whatever you suggest will be taken into account to effect my decisions. **

**WARNING: ****This story contains graphic abuse and violence. Proceed with caution. Don't like it? Don't read :D**

**Quick plot-line: Harry Potter was left with the Dursley's when he was only 1 year old. He suffers major abuse and neglect at their hands and by the age of 7 he feels that all is lost. What will happen when one Severus Snape decides to check up on his best friend's son?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the fantasmagorical workings of J.K Rowling.**

_**Chapter 1**_

The Dursley's were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

And in the Dursley's perfectly 'normal' house a thin, short, dark haired and green eyed little seven year old lived in his own personal hell. Having been systematically beaten and neglected since the age of one, the boy was drastically underweight and littered with scars.

The child in question, Harry Potter, cringed as his uncle's foot crashed down onto his leg, snapping a bone, the obese man laughing as he worked. Harry had bitten almost clear through his lip to hold in the screams since the beating had started over an hour ago.

It never would have happened if Dudley had just let him back into the house after he'd finished the garden.

He'd been weeding and planting in the garden and then watering and mowing the lawn as Aunt Petunia had ordered. He'd had no breakfast or lunch and had to drink water from the garden hose. The sun was beating down on him and no breeze swept through the yard to even slightly cool him. He worked straight through from 10:00am until 3:00pm before even trying to be let in. Aunt Petunia shook her head and gestured towards the garden again and Harry forced himself to continue the task. Once he'd finally finished the daily back-breaking job of tidying the garden and cleaning the shed he had headed for the back door once again to go inside and hopefully wash off the grime that lingered on his body. He tugged on the handle of the French doors but it wouldn't give. Harry pulled harder and then tapped lightly on the glass to gain someone's attention.

Dudley waddled into view, his thin wisps of blond hair wafting around his piggish face as he gleefully slurped at an ice lolly from inside the house. Harry tapped urgently on the door, making a pleading face with his cousin to try to get him to let him in. Dudley just grinned at him and made a mock sad face before waddling out of sight again.

Harry sighed and was balancing the odds on whether he would fall if he tried to scale the wall to get in upstairs when Dudley came back, holding the clock. He held it flat up against the window and grinned maliciously at the horror-struck look on his thin cousin's face as he saw the time.

4:45pm.

Uncle Vernon would be home in half an hour. It would take Harry at least twice that amount of time to finish cooking the meal for the businessman coming round today, iron Uncle Vernon's suit and set the table before hiding in his cupboard.

Dudley smirked at his cousin's despair before moving away from the door, still slurping away at his ice lolly.

Harry sank to his knees in horror. He knew, God did he know, how angry Uncle Vernon became when Harry's chores went unfinished.

He cringed at the thought of his last punishment. He had been thrown into his cupboard as a bruised and bloody mess, his head aching and ribs feeling battered and cracked. He had spent one week in his cupboard, Aunt Petunia giving him half a cup of soup once a day and leaving a cat bowl of lukewarm water just inside his cat flap. He wasn't sure if his uncle would be so lenient this time.

Aunt Petunia finally opened the French doors for Harry when he had only 15 minutes until Uncle Vernon arrived home. He sprinted into the kitchen and pulled the huge slab of beef out of the oven along with the potatoes, artfully arranging the roast vegetables around the slab of meat. He placed it in the centre of the table, quickly bordering it with asparagus and broccoli.

Why his relatives decided to have a full winter meal for this meeting when it was the middle of summer confused him but he dared not question it. That was the first rule to a relatively routine life with the Dursley's. Don't ask questions.

He had learnt that when he asked Aunt Petunia about his mother. She had hit him in the head with the frying pan and then held his hand over an open element, leaving a nasty scar on his palm. It wasn't the only scar he had by a long shot, but it was one of the worst.

The only scar he liked was the thin, lightning bolt scar that was emblazoned on the right side of his forehead.

He rushed upstairs from the kitchen to Uncle Vernon's room and snatched up the grey suit that lay over the back of the chair, dashing for the laundry downstairs and flicking on the iron.

Just as he'd finished with Uncle Vernon's pants he heard the tell tale sound of Vernon's car pulling into the driveway of Number 4 Privet Drive. His heart froze before beginning to beat in rapid time as he heard the front door slam.

"Petunia, Dudley! I'm home!" Uncle Vernon bellowed. He heard Aunt Petunia's shrill voice as she welcomed her husband home. He cringed as he rushed to try and finish his Uncle's suit. If he could just get the jacket of it finished then he could probably manage to set the table and possibly even get something to eat for that night.

All those hopes were shattered when he heard his Uncle, "BOY!" Harry quickly placed the suit over the back of the arm chair and sprinted downstairs until he was standing in front of his Uncle, head bowed.

"Yes Uncle Vernon," he was careful to make sure that his voice betrayed none of the fear he felt.

"Why is the table not set, boy?" Vernon yelled, leaning down into Harry's face, "Did I not ask for the table to be set to perfection? Have you at least finished my suit you worthless little freak? Or are you too much of a freak to do that huh?" By this point he had grabbed Harry's thin jaw in his pudgy hand and was holding the seven year old tightly.

Harry whimpered as the pain from his uncle's grip set in. His whimper turned into a small cry of pain as Vernon grabbed Harry by the hair and dragged him towards the cupboard under the stairs.

"There will be no food for you boy. And you'll get what's coming to you when the Morgan's leave, freak!" the obese man shouted before roughly throwing the boy into the cupboard and locking each one of the 7 locks he'd placed on the outside of the door.

With one last kick to the door Vernon stormed up the stairs and into the master bedroom, taking his time to change into the perfectly ironed suit his nephew had lain out, not even caring that Harry had done it for him.

Harry's body shook in the dark of his cupboard. He knew what his Uncle would do. Vernon would yell and hit him as hard as he could in Harry's ribs and then proceed to hit his legs. He rubbed up and down his arms, feeling the cool sweat that was slowly chilling him to the bone, praying that Vernon would go easy on him. He heard the Morgan's arrive and the laughter around the dinner table as they all dished themselves up to the food that he prepared. His stomach grumbled and ached with hunger at the sound of knives and forks scraping across the plates.

Harry knew that he would get no food tonight, or for the next few days for that matter. He sat up quietly on his bed when he heard the Dursley's cheerfully fare-welling the Morgan's and then the heavy footsteps as Uncle Vernon stalked as well as his large frame would allow him to. The locks clicked out of place with a rasping snick and next thing Harry knew he was being pulled out of the cupboard by the collar of his ragged shirt.

Uncle Vernon threw the malnourished boy onto the ground in the middle of the living room and stood in front of him, legs spread and hands clasped behind his back like a dictator as Harry scrambled into a kneeling position, "I gave you a simple list of chores boy. And you couldn't complete them. You need to remember Potter, you are just a freak. Just like your drunken good-for-nothing parents. You need to work to earn your keep in this house. We are good to you aren't we? You are fed, clothed and given shelter. What more could you want? Nothing boy, that's what you want and deserve isn't it?" Harry nodded his head frantically, hoping to be spared. His small flare of hope was snuffed out with his Uncle's next words, "Now, for your disobedience, I think it only fair that you pay for it with the body we support."

With that, Vernon threw a kick at the young boy's stomach, grinning in delight at the sickening crack and resulting cry of pain as Harry was sent reeling backwards from the blow. He continued to throw punches and kicks, watching with glee as the boy slowly became less and less aware. He stamped on Harry's legs and almost giggled in sick glee as the bones snapped beneath his feet. Harry felt the pain less and less but instead felt an overwhelming urge to vomit as the beating progressed.

Harry wished that for once he would just die instead. This was the worst that Vernon had been in months. Stuff having to take this. He knew he was a freak but it was not fair to have all these bad things done to him. Before Harry could lose consciousness Vernon had dragged the boy over to the staircase and tied the thin wrists to the banisters.

"Now you will learn some manners, freak," he muttered, sliding off his belt before proceeding to rip off Harry's shirt and beginning to leave a new set of scars behind with the thick belt and silver buckle. The boy didn't cry out once and this displeased Vernon but as it was getting late and he didn't want Dudley to come down in the night and see Potter in that state Mr Dursley unceremoniously bundled up the tiny, unconscious boy and threw him onto the thin mattress in the cupboard. After locking each lock tightly he waddled upstairs to go to bed.

The next morning Harry lay sprawled out on his front, in too much pain to do much else. Petunia had long since left the house to go to some House-hold exhibition, Dudley had gone to hang out with his little gang and Vernon had left for work sometime around 7:00am, whispering through Harry's cat flap, "You won't be coming out of there for a while , boy."

**Potions Master's office, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

Severus Snape was tired. Usually he would have been out of Hogwarts as soon as possible but for some reason he was still there, in his office, grading mind-numbing reports on the use of Willow Bark in potions.

"Third-year dolts. How can they not realise that Willow bark is the prime ingredient in pain-relief potions?" he muttered to himself before swiftly sketching a T on the paper before him.

He laid his black quill in the ink pot before leaning back in his chair. Something felt wrong. All day Severus had felt as if he was needed somewhere but could not bring himself to figure out where.

As he glanced around his desk his gaze rested on one picture in particular. The moving image was of himself and Lily. It was in their seventh year at Hogwarts after she had finally forgiven him for calling her a mudblood two years before. They were both smiling and hugging in the picture, laughing occasionally and waving at the camera which had been held by Severus' mother, Eileen.

Severus sighed. Eileen was dead now, as was Lily; his best friend. He was left as the sole heir to the Prince fortune and secondary godfather to Harry Potter, the boy wonder.

"I wonder..." he muttered to himself, before swiftly rising from his chair and making his way to the floo, throwing on a cloak as he went.

It was time to pay his godson a visit.

Severus stepped gracefully out of Arabella Figg's fireplace, artfully avoiding a slumbering cat. He quickly cast a revealing spell and found that Mrs Figg was not in the house. Smirking, he swept through the hallway and out the front door, locking it behind him.

Quickly casting a Notice-Me-Not charm around himself he strode towards Number 4 Privet Drive, sneering as he took in the perfectly manicured garden. As far as he could tell the house was empty, but he cast a charm to check, even as he opened the front door. The spell revealed that there was one magical person in the house.

The potions master was quick to cast a Point-me spell and found himself confused when the spell directed him towards the heavily padlocked cupboard under the stairs.

"What the...?" he muttered to himself, even as he shifted towards the door.

The door swung open at a quick '_Alohomora_' and Severus gagged at the sight before him.

A small and bloodied form was lying on a thin mattress. Their body was curled in a foetal position and the Professor could tell that at least one of his legs was broken, if not both. There were thin lines running down the child's back that were encrusted with dried blood. The room stunk of urine and filth, the door having blocked the smell from the rest of the house.

Severus couldn't bring himself to go closer. Instead he backed away from the door, falling to the floor as he tried to quell the growing anger within him.

Harry James Potter, the supposed Saviour of the Wizarding world, was merely and abused and neglected child. His upbringing was almost a mirror of what Severus had gone through in his youth.

Harry Potter.

Lily's child.

"Lily!" Severus breathed. If she were watching from the afterlife her heart had probably broken one million times over.

Severus took a deep breath before rising and moving forward again, reaching into the cupboard and carefully plucking up the child, shocked at how little he truly weighed. "Snips!" he called. With a loud _*Crack!* _a small, misshapen creature popped into existence beside the potions master.

"Yes Master Severus. What can Snips be doing for Master Severus sir?"

Severus managed a small smile, "Snips I would like you to find Poppy Pompfrey at Hogwarts and apparate her to Prince Manor. Take her straight into the blue guest room. I will be there. Make sure that she has all of her equipment with her."

With a short nod the house-elf disapparated with another crack and Severus followed, spinning quickly on his heel and holding Harry close to him.

When they arrived at Prince Manor Severus quickly moved through the hallways until he reached a large door on his right. With a wave of his hand the door swung open and he swept into the room towards the soft bed in the centre of the room, depositing Harry in the middle. He wandlessly removed all but the child's underwear and cast a light cleaning charm on him.

The full extent of the damage was difficult to look at and Severus turned away quickly, looking to the door to await Poppy's arrival.

Within moments the medi-witch was apparated into to the room by Snips, who promptly left again before returning with a large basin full to the brim with warm water. He placed it on the bedside table and lay some cloths beside it.

Poppy rushed forward with a gasp as she saw the scarred and beaten child lying on the bed. Within seconds she had whipped her wand out and was casting diagnostic charms left and right.

"Who did this Severus? Who is this child? Where did you find him?" she shot off the questions quickly and Severus quickly moved to answer, "This child is Harry Potter Poppy. He was beaten by his Uncle but there is evidence to support the idea that his Aunt both supported and helped with the abuse. He is severely underweight."

Poppy paused in her spells and looked up at him, "But surely Albus knew. H-he would have got Harry out wouldn't he?"

"Poppy-" Severus tried to speak but was cut off.

"Wouldn't he?" She sounded desperate to believe that the Headmaster wouldn't do something like this. Leaving a child to an abusive and neglectful family.

Severus sighed wearily, "Poppy I'm afraid that it looks like Albus didn't look after Harry as well as he should have."

Madam Pompfrey sighed before moving back towards Harry and plucking the parchment list of injuries from the air. She scanned down them, her face growing darker at each line. She looked up to Severus, her hand clutching the parchment in a death grip, her eyes like ice.

"If I ever get my hands on those muggles I will kill them slowly and painfully. That's a promise." Severus nodded at her words before they both set to work on the boy, setting broken bones and staunching the flow of blood from numerous places on his body.

They worked non-stop for three hours to bring Harry back from the brink before they both stepped away from the bed, exhausted.

As they sank into chairs by the fire Poppy turned to Severus, "I take it that you don't want me to mention this to Dumbledore."

Severus smirked at her, "Indeed. It would be most beneficial to all involved if you not only promised not to but swore and oath."

Poppy pulled out her wand and held it in front of her, "I, Poppy Pompfrey, do so swear on my magic that I will not tell Albus Dumbledore about the events in regards to Harry Potter or Severus Snape."

Gold and green sparks shot out the end of her wand and encircled her before fading away as she lowered the wand.

"You know what Severus?" He turned towards her, "We may be exhausted, but we did bloody well."

**First chapter done. Sorry for the kind of stilted ending but I couldn't decide where to end this and it seemed a bit long for a prologue. **

**Do you know what makes the world go round? REVIEWS! So please keep the world spinning :D**

**HufflepufflikeSlytherin**


	2. Chapter 2

**And I'm back. Please remember what I said about infrequent updating for it will continue in this fashion. **

**Disclaimer: I still don't own the Harry Potter works although I really wish I did **

**Oh well, without further ado I give you the second chapter of Fallen Phoenix!**

Poppy flooed back to Hogwarts after checking on Harry's vitals again. Harry was left in Severus' care once again and the potions master found himself questioning what the hell he was thinking. He didn't know how to take care of a seven year old, especially not one that had gone through the life Harry had.

If he handed Harry over to Dumbledore the boy would be sent to some random person's home, maybe even a death-eater's home.

Severus restrained a shudder at the idea of Harry living with the Crabbe family. The boy would be miserable. Severus rose and swept out of the room towards his office, placing wards that would alert him to Harry's awakening even as he strode through the dim hallways. Once inside the study he began to pace, striding between the bookcase and the chair.

"Damn, damn, damn!" he yelled. He remembered his promise to Lily, his promise to keep Harry safe no matter what. Although it wasn't common knowledge Snape had been forgiven by Lily soon after insulting her and it was she who persuaded him to speak to Dumbledore about becoming a spy.

When Lily and James were married Severus had attended the service, disillusioned in the corner of course. He had been present at Harry's birth and had been the first visitor allowed in to hold Harry after Lily and James had presented the child to their friends.

Petunia had stopped speaking to Lily in their seventh year, preferring to hang around her fat lump of a boyfriend. Severus snarled at the thought of the man. Although he had obviously inflicted most of the abuse on Harry, Petunia was also at fault.

When he had gone to check up on Harry he had expected a relatively calm home. Maybe he would be like a brother to Dudley and the two boys would be close. He may even be calling the elder Dursley's mum and dad.

But instead he'd found a broken child, hurt by his last living relatives. He knew that there was nothing else for it, he would be keeping Harry indefinitely.

With this last decision made Severus left the study and headed to his room, looking forward to sinking into blissful oblivion.

_*Page break*_

When Harry woke up he braced himself for the onslaught of pain that was sure to come.

There was nothing. And the mattress he was on was far more comfortable than the one he was used to. He tentatively raised his head only to find his vision blurred. His glasses were gone! The dark-haired child began to panic. Even without his glasses he knew that he was no longer in his cupboard. He sat up quickly and winced at the sharp pain that flew through his ribs.

He paid the pain no heed as he searched desperately for his glasses, his fingers scrabbling across the bedside table. He was about to throw back the covers to search more thoroughly when someone spoke, "And what is it that you are searching so desperately for, Mr Potter?"

The voice was liquid silk and, in spite of his misgivings, Harry relaxed at the sound of it. He turned his head towards the dark, shadowy figure that stood in the doorway.

"I-I was l-looking for my gl-glasses sir," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Severus smiled at the hesitance although Harry could not see and, instead of summoning the glasses he pointed his wand at Harry's eyes and murmured, "_Perficio os."_

Harry gasped as his vision came into perfect clarity. He touched his fingers to his eyes and confirmed that he definitely wasn't wearing his glasses.

"H-how did you _do _that?" he asked, before cringing back, expecting a blow for the question.

The man moved forward and knelt before Harry.

He reached up and pulled the thin arm away from the boy's face. Severus delicately held the hand in his as he spoke, "I will not strike you little one. My name is Severus Snape and I will look after you from now on. As for your question," he paused and Harry flinched again, expecting to be reprimanded, "I used magic. A spell in fact, which gives you perfect sight."

At the word magic Harry slipped his hand from Severus' and shook his head.

"There's no such thing as magic," He said regarding the, obviously crazy man with a solemn gaze. The man didn't _look_ crazy, in fact he looked very serious with black, shoulder-length hair that matched the colour of his cape perfectly. He had very pale skin and black eyes which were, at that precise moment, regarding Harry with something akin to shock.

Severus reigned in the shock and asked, "Who told you that Harry?"

"Uncle Vernon sir." He jumped slightly when Severus' eyes immediately darkened with anger.

Upon seeing Harry's reaction the potion's master took a deep breath to calm himself before addressing Harry again, "Harry, your Aunt and Uncle are both horrible people. They lied to you about many things. Has anything ever happened to you that you couldn't explain? Something that no-one else could do?"

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment before he gave his answer, "Last term, I-I was running from Dudley and his friend's. They were Harry Hunting you see sir and I came to a dead-end. I wanted nothing more than to be out of their reach and then suddenly, I was on top of the roof. Uncle Vernon was real mad at me sir. He said that I was a bad boy and that freak's like me shouldn't be around normal people. I know that he's right sir but it still hurt. I was locked in my cupboard for two weeks after that sir. Aunt Petunia called the school and said that I would be sick for the last week of term."

Severus was shaking with restrained rage by the end of Harry's tale. Accidental magic was precisely what it sounded like. Accidental.

No child could restrain themselves without practice and to punish a little boy for something out of his control was inconceivable.

Snape took in deep breaths through his nose to calm himself before lifting his black eyes to Harry's wary emerald orbs. Severus Snape did not do hugs but when Harry continued to look at him with pain buried deep in his eyes he couldn't resist. He reached out slowly and gathered Harry tight to him in a hug.

Harry froze. He had never been hugged in his life although he'd seen Aunt Petunia do it to Dudley and he'd hugged himself sometimes. But the feeling of a warm adult holding him close made him feel safe. He relaxed and leant into the embrace, snuggling his face into the thick fabric of the man's cloak and allowing a single tear to escape.

Severus was surprised when he felt the raven-haired boy's thin arms snake their way around his waist, not quite able to reach all the way around. He was even more surprised when Harry nuzzled his head into his chest. He felt a strange warmth creeping through his chest at the gesture.

On impulse the potions master leaned down and pressed his cheek to the tousled hair.

"No-one will ever hurt you again Harry. Not while I'm around," he said, feeling Harry's body jerk as he let out a sob. Severus held the child tighter and rocked him slightly as Harry wept into his chest.

They sat that way for an hour, both of them revelling in actually being close to someone.

Tears spent, Harry slowly pulled away from Severus, his cheeks flushing as he noticed the wet patch left from his crying.

"I-I'm sorry sir. I didn't mean to ruin your clothes sir," he looked up at Severus, looking more comfortable than before his crying fit.

Severus' lips curled into a smile, "It's quite alright Harry." He drew his wand and pointed it at his robes before saying _Scourgio_ loud enough for Harry to hear. His smile deepened when he saw the look of awe on Harry's face when the stain disappeared.

"W-was that m-magic sir?" Harry asked, still hesitant to ask.

"Yes it was Harry. If you'd like, later I can train you to control your magic and you could do spells as well," he gently picked Harry up and moved back towards the bed, carefully placing Harry in the centre.

"So I could pull a rabbit out of a hat sir?" Harry asked.

Severus laughed, "If I teach you correctly Harry you could turn a hat into a rabbit."

"_Really_ sir?" Harry's eyes were lit with astonishment.

"Yes really. It's called transfiguration." Severus called a house-elf and requested a light breakfast of fruit.

Harry paused to watch the house-elf before trying to mimic Severus, "Tansfigoraton?"

The potions master looked at the child lying in the bed, amusement clear in his eyes.

"Repeat after me Harry. .," He said, making sure to leave a gap in between each one and moving his mouth exaggeratedly to get his point across.

Harry repeated the word correctly and grinned at his accomplishment before staring in shock as a platter of food popped into the room, followed by a glass of milk and a steaming mug of what smelt like coffee.

His jaw dropped when a separate tray, laden with fresh fruit and a huge variety of sandwiches floated over to where he lay. The glass of milk accompanied the tray and, after sending a questioning glance to Severus, Harry reached forward and plucked the cup from the air.

Severus smiled when Harry pulled back from drinking with a frothy, white moustache adorning his upper lip. He almost pointed it out to Harry but decided that it was rather sweet on the child.

'_What is becoming of me?' _Severus wondered, '_I just though the word sweet in relation to something other than chocolate or potions ingredients. This child is too cute for his own good. Oh no, now I've said cute. Damn!'_

The potions master took a sip of his coffee before setting it on his knee, lacing his fingers together to stop it from falling. He snacked on the food but found it much more entertaining to watch Harry.

Harry's face was covered in fruit juice. He had barely touched the sandwiches, instead feasting on sections of pineapple and watermelon. As Severus watched Harry selected a strawberry and chomped it into it, smiling with childish joy as the rivulets of juice ran down his chin. He was so enamoured with the fruit that he jumped back with a start when a napkin was thrust into his face. He followed the hand up to Severus' face, noting the amused look in the man's eyes.

"Wipe your face child, and then if you would indulge me by eating one of the sandwiches as well?"

The raven-haired boy's cheeks burned with embarrassment as he accepted the napkin and wiped his face clean of the remnants of his meal. To appease Severus he picked up a ham sandwich and began to nibble on it, taking sips of milk in between bites.

Severus was pleased that Harry liked milk. Hopefully, with the aid of nutrition potions and the like, he would be able to get Harry to a normal weight and height. The thought of those types of potions reminded him of the one that he needed to give Harry now.

Meanwhile, Harry had filled his small stomach and pushed the tray away from himself. He smiled up at Severus and then noticed the vial that was clasped in the man's hand.

"What's that?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

"This is a nutrition potion Harry. It will enable you to grow tall and strong." He held the potion towards Harry who talk it before asking, "You mean like veges sir?"

"Vegetables Harry and yes, you could think of this as a very helpful vegetable in a bottle."

Harry grinned and chucked the potion, smiling at the taste of fruit as it went down. Severus smirked at his expression, "That is one of the nicer potions I will admit."

Harry handed the empty vial back to Severus who vanished it.

"What will we do today sir?" Harry questioned.

Severus smiled, "For today, you will rest and heal and then tomorrow I will take you into London and buy you some clothes. And maybe even new books." He grinned when Harry's eyes lit up at the mention of books. He looked just like Lily.

"Books and clothes for me sir?"

Severus smiled, "Indeed."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hola, bonjour, **_**Was'sup!**_

**Back for another chapter I see (hands out tea and cookies). You shall not be disappointed my darlings Mwahahahahaha! **

**Now that my madness is out of the way let's begin!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter books. If I did Snape wouldn't have died.**

Harry held tight to Severus' hand as they walked quickly down the seedy looking street. Harry was practically running to keep up with the potions' master's footsteps but he didn't mind. In a few minutes he would be in the magical world and he would get a wand and everything. Well maybe not a proper wand. Mr Snape said that for now he would only be allowed a training wand so that he could get used to channelling his magic. But he could get robes and then he would learn how to make them billow behind when he left a room like Mr Snape did.

Severus glanced down at the child currently attached to his person and smiled subtly at how impossibly excited Harry looked. The lightning bolt scar had been covered with a glamour that morning. To the outside world Harry was just another child. Albeit a ridiculously small and cute child (not that Severus would ever use the word cute) but no-one would ever look close enough to truly recognise him.

Harry stared at the sign above the doorway as they came to it and quickly read the name of the building, The Leaky Cauldron. "What an odd name..." he muttered to himself as Snape directed him through the open door.

Severus led the small boy through the pub, silently glaring at anyone who looked at them. Tom, the barman, raised his hand in acknowledgement and Severus inclined him but did not stop stray from his path through the pub. Harry mimicked his guardian's motion toward Tom and the barman grinned toothily at the pair as they exited through the back door.

Severus released Harry's hand to pull out his wand and tap a few seemingly random bricks. As he backed away Harry's jaw dropped. The wall was rearranging into an archway, the bricks shifting and melding into one another.

Snape laughingly closed Harry's mouth with one finger before gesturing toward the bustling street before them.

"Welcome, Harry, to Diagon Alley."

Their first stop was to Gringotts where they would visit Harry's vault.

Harry had been surprised to learn that he had any money. Severus was horrified to learn that the Dursley's had always told Harry that without them he had no money.

"Harry," he said, "Although I am not certain as to the extent of your fortune I do know that you are one of the richest wizards in Europe."

Harry had stared at him uncomprehendingly before opening his mouth and innocently asking, "Europe is like England and stuff right?" Severus had nodded with a sigh before leading Harry over to the towering white building.

Severus strode through the doors with Harry attached; his robes weren't billowing as for once he had no robes. Instead he was wearing a completely black muggle suit and, if one looked close enough, he looked ridiculously uncomfortable in the relatively form fitting clothes.

Harry's gaze was skyward as they walked through the heavy wooden doors and entered into the atrium. He stared at the high vaulted ceilings engraved with Gobbledygook before lowering his gaze. The small body jerked to a halt and emerald eyes widened as Harry took in the sight before him.

The goblin was small with wrinkled grey skin. His fingers ended in claw-like nails and his teeth were sharpened to a point. He grinned at the child and beckoned him forward with one gnarled finger.

Harry looked up to Severus who nodded, before shuffling over to the goblin's little alcove. His head barely brushed the edge of the counter and he had to stand on the tip of his toes to maintain eye contact with the small creature.

The goblin laid down the quill he had been scratching away with and regarded the small form before him, "Mr Potter, we did not expect you until your eleventh birthday. And you are accompanied by Professor Snape, whom I assume has your key?" he asked, directing his gaze to said Professor.

Severus sneered in his typical way before addressing the goblin, "I do not have his key. We are here for an Inheritance test. Now direct us to Grabnook and we'll be on our way."

The goblin puffed out his chest in self importance before turning from the desk and leaving, presumably to find Grabnook.

The seven year old watched the goblin depart before turning to Severus and tugging on his robes to get him to bend down to Harry's level.

"Who's Granooks sir?" Harry asked, obviously curious but still slightly afraid of the punishment that might result from asking questions.

Severus smiled and smoothed down Harry's unruly hair, "His name is Grabnook Harry, and he is the account manager for the Prince vaults. He can look after yours as well."

As Harry nodded another Goblin came and led them down dark corridors and into a dimly lit room.

Severus sat in one of the arm chairs present and indicated to Harry that he should sit in the other. Harry did so and the both turned their attention to the door as it swung open.

A goblin -who Harry assumed was Grabnook- strode into the room and took a seat behind the desk, placing a file on the surface as he sat.

"Good day Mr Potter. May all your endeavours end well and bring you gold." Harry stared at the goblin and then glanced to Severus, confusion a prominent emotion in his eyes.

Severus subtly jerked his head towards the Grabnook, indicating to Harry that he should reply, "Um... thank you for your hospitalitary Mr Grabnook, sir. I wish the same things for you."

Grabnook's eyes glimmered with amusement at Harry's butchering of the word hospitality, "I am... not used to being addressed as a sir Mr Potter. However if it is your wish to address me as such you may."

Harry again looked to Severus who leant in and whispered, "He said thank you."

Harry nodded at that and then grinned at the goblin, bouncing slightly in the dragon-hide chair.

Grabnook pulled out an evil looking dagger. He laid it beside a bowl and began pulling out various vials and bottles. Harry and Severus looked on as he poured all the liquids into a bowl and laid a leaf of parchment on top.

The page first turned red, then blue and then turned back to a pale yellow. Grabnook carefully lifted the parchment out of the liquid and laid it on the table before hefting the handle of the dagger into his palm.

Harry blanched at the sight of the blade calming only slightly when Severus laid a re-assuring hand on his shoulder. Grabnook noticed the pallor of his young client and quickly moved to calm him, "I will only take a few drops of your blood Mr Potter, and then I'm sure that Professor Snape will immediately heal it for you." Grabnook looked towards the dark-eyed man as he said this and was rewarded with a nod.

Harry also nodded and then extended his hand toward Grabnook. The goblin grasped the small hand in his own and then quickly pricked the end of Harry's finger with the tip of the blade. Harry flinched at the slight pain but followed as Grabnook's hand directed his own over the parchment. Three drops of blood fell onto the parchment before Harry was able to draw his hand away, holding it out to Severus who tapped it with his wand, immediately healing the small wound.

All three of them stared at the paper as the blood was absorbed. Finally the blood disappeared completely and red ink appeared on the paper; a list of names. Grabnook slid the parchment across the desk towards them and the two wizards leaned forward to read the list.

_Inheritance of Hadrian James Potter_

_Biological:_

_Potter_

_Evans_

_Gryffindor_

_Ravenclaw_

_Merlin_

_Magical:_

_Slytherin_

Harry looked hugely confused but it was Severus that looked completely gob-smacked.

Severus knew that the Potter's were descendants of Gryffindor but he'd never known that they were descendants of Merlin as well. But on burning question was brought to the forefront of his mind.

"Why does it say Evans? They were not a magical family were they?"

Grabnook flipped open the file he'd brought with him and flicked through the many pieces of parchment. He finally removed one and skimmed over it with narrowed eyes.

"It would appear that Mrs Lily Potter nee Evans was from a line previously believed to be reduced to Squibs. Her mother was also of magical blood although her parentage is unknown. It would appear that Mr Potter is a Pureblood wizard." He gestured to said wizard who was currently playing with a tear in his ragged jeans, completely unaware that he was the richest and probably most powerful wizard in the entire world, "The Evans' are descendants of the Ravenclaw line so that explains that. As for Merlin, I believe that he is the ancestral head of the Potter family. All in all, Mr Potter should be hugely magically powerful."

Severus uttered only one word, "Shit."

**DON'T HURT ME! I know that the chapter is short considering how long it's taken for me to update but I'm too young and intelligent (sort of) to die!**

**Okay that's the end of that. Next chapter will probably be a skip forward in time although I may include a quick over view of the shopping trip if you'd like.**

**But the only way I'll be able to tell if you want the shopping trip is if you press that beautiful blue button at the bottom of this page and review **

**Make the world spin my loves, make it spin... **


	4. Chapter 4

**And we're back on the air. (Takes a sip from the glass of water from under the desk) **

**So many reviews for the last chapter, I'm so glad that you all like it!**

**Now for this chapter. I think it's time for some... SHOPPING!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I just like to screw with all their lives **

_**Parseltongue**_

_Thoughts_

Harry and Severus left the room in Gringotts, the former skipping and the latter mindlessly trudging along.

Snape was gobsmacked. This tiny child that was skipping along beside him was the richest and most magically powerful wizard alive; stronger than Voldemort by half. And yet there he stood, engaged in a staring match with one of the owls at Eyelops Owl Emporium. _'Wait what?' _Severus wondered, striding over to the child and laying a hand on his shoulder. He watched as Harry flinched from the contact and then turned toward him, his fearful look melting into a wide grin when he realised who it was.

"Why are you staring at an owl Harry?" The potions master asked, letting his amusement leak into his words.

Harry grinned even wider, "He was talking to me," he gestured subtly towards the aforementioned tawny owl, "He was saying that human's glance around too much, that we don't focus on anything. And I told him that I can focus on anything I wish to. So he challenged me to a staring match. Now I've lost, and his point has been provend. B-but it wasn't your fault sir, I probably would have lost anyway."

Severus shook his head at Harry's fear of being reprimanded. _'Damn those muggles!'_

"The word is proven, Harry. And do you mean to tell me, that you were conversing with an... owl?"

Harry turned back to the owl and let out a series of low pitched hoots. At first it seemed as if he were merely kidding around, but then the owl hooted back. Harry nodded and turned back to Severus whose pale complexion had paled further.

"Philip says that you seem to be a slow human if you're unable to grasp the concept that yes, I'm speaking to an owl." Philip hooted again, obviously saying something mean as Harry scowled at the bird, "He also said thank you for correcting this idiotic midget's vocabulalary."

Severus suppressed a smile, "You're speaking to an owl named Philip. Well that's... unexpected. I shouldn't be surprised that you can speak to animals I suppose. Well, although this is amazingly fascinating and I can barely pull my gaze away perhaps it would be beneficial for the both of us if we purchased a slightly less tenacious owl hm?"

Harry had no idea what tenacious meant but the mention of an animal just for him made his eyes widen in shock, "You mean that I can have an o-owl sir; an owl just for me?"

"Well I don't see another seven-year old whose name is Harry and wants an owl. So by all means let's buy you an owl Harry," Severus smirked before taking Harry's hand to lead him into the shop.

All around them were different animals. Harry's gaze flicked over the owls and cats and immediately shot over to the snakes. He plopped himself down in front of one of the small glass enclosures and stared at the Brazilian Rainbow Boa inside. The snake hissed and Harry realised that he could understand her, _**"Sssilly young humansss, they do not understand the glory of serpentsss..."**_

Harry shuffled forward on his knees and hissed a reply, _**"I think you're gorgeousss Ms Rainbow. I've never ssspoken to a ssnake before. Can you underssstand me?" **_'Ms Rainbow' raised her head until her eyes were level with Harry's.

"_**It has been many years ssince I have met a sspeaker of my tongue. My name is Sssasha, what is your name sspeaker?" **_

Harry smiled at the boa, _**"My name iss Harry Sssasha. Is it really unusual to be able to sspeak to ssnakes? I mean, I sspoke to an owl outsside." **_

Severus was lightly stroking the back of a pure black owl while watching his young ward sit in front of the snakes. He halted in his petting when he noticed the snake rearing up behind the class. Snape pulled away from the bird and drew closer to Harry when he noticed Harry's lips moving slightly and, when within hearing distance, was shocked to hear melodic hissing sounds issuing from the seven year old.

The potion's master staggered back and barely managed to catch himself on one of the many shelves covered in pet food. To find out that Harry was a Parselmouth was enough to make Severus feel years older. It should have been expected, what with Harry being the magical heir of Slytherin and the fact that he was able to speak to normal animals. But Parseltongue would be something they would have no choice but to try and hide, even if it was only to stop the public from turning on Harry.

On top of this new problem there were some different inheritance details to be worked out. As the heir to the Prince line he knew how the whole 'Pureblood' thing worked. Now that Harry was head of all those houses he would have to be taught all the pureblood ways. _'Mental note to self: Buy book on Pureblood etiquette.'_

With the magical inheritance of Salazar Slytherin Harry was entitled to share the Slytherin vaults with the biological heir. Unfortunately for Harry the biological heir of Slytherin was Voldemort, or formally Tom Riddle. The fact that he had not inherited Slytherin's magic meant that his family's magic had not deemed him worthy of the power. For Harry to receive any of the magic he must have a strong connection to Voldemort.

Severus' only question was: _How _are _they connected?_

The emerald-eyed boy conversing with the snakes before him was left blissfully unaware of his guardian's current internal monologue.

Harry had never had the opportunity to speak to snake's before and was finding them to be very good company. Sasha was currently trying to explain the danger of his new-found power to him.

"_**Young masster, there are only certain wizards who can sspeak to my kind. You are one of them, young one. But there are those who would use thiss to hurt you, you must not tell everyone about thiss," **_Sasha hissed, sounding surprisingly blasé for such urgent words.

Harry glanced behind himself to take a peek at Mr Snape. The raven-haired boy was surprised to see his steadfast saviour leaning heavily against one of the shelves, looking paler than any person Harry had ever seen.

Harry remembered seeing one of the shows that Dudley watched where a man was freezing cold and was completely white. Overcome with worry for Mr Snape he hissed, "_**Excuse me please**_," to Sasha and hurried over to his guardian to wrap his thin arms tightly around the man's waist.

Severus jolted in surprise and stared down at the small head that was currently snuggling into his stomach. Hesitantly, he brought his hands up and gently encircled the child's shoulders. He had no idea where the embrace had come from but he knew it would set the child back in his recovery if he was rejected by someone he was beginning to trust. And that was obviously the only reason that Severus was gently stroking back the hair from Harry's forehead; the only reason.

Harry slowly pulled away and looked up at Mr Snape, scared that he would be reprimanded for his audacity. It had seemed like a good idea to try and warm Mr Snape up with a hug, but with the stunned look on the man's face Harry was reconsidering his intelligence.

Severus smiled down at the child and carded his long fingers through Harry's unruly hair to reassure him.

"Why don't you introduce me to your new friend Mr Potter?" he asked, the slight smile remaining on his face, making him look less forbidding. Harry grinned and nodded, gently taking Severus' hand in his own and leading him over to the snake enclosures.

Harry hissed something to the snake and then turned back to Severus, "This is Sasha, sir. She's telling me about the dangers of being a Parselmouth. She says that I can't tell anybody about it," after realising what he said Harry's features took on a horrified expression, "But I just told you! Oh, please don't tell anyone sir! I'm sorry I haven't done what I was told! Please don't send me back, I'll cook and clean and do your gardening! Pleas-" Severus knelt down to Harry's level and gently cupped the boy's face.

"Harry," he murmured softly, "It's okay to trust me with your secrets. You know that I would never betray them to anyone. I would very much like to meet your new animal friends."

Harry beamed at the man and began to introduce him to the other snakes. One of the snakes was practically beating itself against the glass in an effort to get to Harry and Harry looked equally as desperate to hold the snake. Realising this, Severus wandlessly opened the top of the enclosure and watched as the snake slithered out and onto Harry's extended arm.

The two began hissing to each other; Harry's face suffused with childish glee. Snape was happy that Harry wasn't broken as he had expected an abused child to be. He himself, after suffering abuse at his father's hands for many years, had grown bitter and jaded; unwilling to trust and cruel to those that he didn't know. Harry was open to everything and had given his trust without hesitation but Severus felt sure that Harry would not do that with just anyone. He was quite sure that he was a special case; something about him made Harry feel comfortable. The potions master couldn't deny that it made him happy to make Harry happy.

'_Merlin, this child will be the ruin of my reputation if I go around being __**happy**__ all the time."_

Harry turned to Severus with a pleading look in his eyes, the Emerald Tree boa lying around his shoulders like a scaly scarf, "Mr Snape, can we please take Samael home with us? He said that he's my familiar and we're meant to be friends for life. Can we take him sir?" The snake was nodding along with Harry's words and at his last question he winked at Severus and rubbed his head against Harry's ear.

Severus looked at Harry and his stony indifference crumbled at the pleading look on the child's face. Whether Harry knew it or not, he had damn good puppy-dog eyes. Snape sighed resignedly and nodded his head in assent, prompting a little cheer and happy dance from Harry, Samael bobbing around contentedly on the exuberant boy's shoulder.

"But," the bouncing stopped as Harry paused to stare at Severus, his arms still raised in a victory pose, "You will also need some sort of bird to carry your mail, so I suggest you start looking."

Harry nodded and rushed around with his young snake, pointing to several different birds and checking to see if Samael nodded or not. It was safe for them to converse as no-one was in the shop except the aged shop-keeper who was currently snoozing behind the desk. Severus sneered at the man but was drawn from what was going to be a stern telling off when a small hand tugged on his robe.

Harry was standing behind him, with a snow whit owl perched on his shoulder, and Samael resting along his opposite arm. The owl and snake both glared at one another but made no noises as Harry grinned up at his guardian.

"This is going to be my owl. She doesn't have a name yet but I'm sure I can find one in a really good book. Perhaps you could help me sir?"

'_There's that damn puppy-dog look again. Curse my occasionally kind soul.'_

"I will help you find a name for your owl Harry. Perhaps something from _Hogwarts a History _would be appropriate."

Harry looked confused, "What's Hogwarts sir?"

"It is a magical school for wizards and witches. You will receive your letter when you're eleven and attend until you're seventeen. I teach potions there."

Harry's jaw dropped, "You can make potions?"

Severus looked bemused at the question, "Yes I can. I am a Potions Master. I will teach you about potions before you go to school if that is agreeable to you."

Snape pulled out a bag of coins and plopped it onto the counter, jolting the sleeping shop-keep from his slumber.

"T-that's not mine- Oh! Professor Snape! What may I ask, are you purchasing today?"

Severus gestured to the owl and snake behind him, "I wish to buy these two animals and two boxes of owl treats," he wandlessly summoned the treats and set them on the countertop beside the bag of gold before sneering at the incompetent man before him, "How much will that cost?"

The man stared at the animals wrapped around the small child before looking back to the intimidating man, "those two animals have attacked any other person that came near them. You can h-have them for six galleons. The owl treats are free with the purchase of an owl."

Severus counted out the appropriate number of coins and placed them on the counter, stowing the bag in the depths of his robes. With a nod to the man behind the counter he grasped Harry's hand in his own and swept from the shop.

"Where are we going now sir?" Harry asked. His owl was now perched inside a cage that Severus had grabbed and Samael was (with his consent) shrunk and resting in Harry's pocket.

Severus glanced down at his small charge, "We will go to _Madam Malkin's_ to buy you some adequate clothing. Then we will head into Ollivander's for a training wand so that I may begin to teach you magic."

Harry grinned up at him, "Brilliant!"

The fitting at _Madam Malkin's_ didn't take long and soon enough they were leaving with a full wardrobe for Harry, full of wizard and muggle clothing. Severus shrunk it all and put the items in his pocket before taking Harry by the hand and walking with him down the street until they reached the old shop belonging to Ollivander.

A piercing chime rang through the duty shop as they pushed the door open and entered. Harry stared at the shelves that seemed to go on forever behind the polished desk. Mr Snape strode forward and pressed the bell on the desk, making Harry jump when an even louder chime pierced through the shop.

"That's louder than in normal shops isn't it Mr Snape?" Harry asked, looking slightly fearful after the ring.

Severus nodded and gently stroked Harry's fringe away from his forehead, "It's magic Harry. A lot of things are odd where magic is concerned," he told the boy, continuing the soothing motion of running his long fingers through the messy hair.

They both turned their heads sharply when Ollivander, an old frail looking man, came stumbling up between two shelves. He gasped when he saw Harry before a knowing twinkle entered his eye, "Mr Potter, at last. I wondered when you would come to my shop. So much potential, more than Dumbledore himself I would say. Yes, you are destined for great things Mr Potter, great things indeed. And Severus Snape, your training wand was ebony and thestral hair wasn't it? 16 years ago you came into my shop to retrieve your true wand. It took me weeks to get your wand cores in harmony, so many elements that rejected each other. A very precariously balanced wand it was, lingering in the centre of light and dark."

Harry was staring at the old man, wondering if he was mad like old Mrs Figg who liked to feed her cats prunes. He seemed mad enough. Then again, if he made wands maybe he had to be crazy with the frustration of making all the parts work. Yes, that must be why he was mad.

Severus had been subtly listening in on Harry's thoughts and struggled to stifle a snort at his charges mind's inner workings. He turned to Ollivander and regarded him before speaking, "Harry needs a training wand."

Ollivander nodded excitedly and then waved his own wand, sending tape measures to measure Harry's head and neck, they even measured each of his fingers. Harry giggled at the ticklish sensation and gasped when the tape measures flew back to Ollivander's desk and dissolved into it, leaving a piece of parchment which the old man quickly flicked over before strolling over to the shelves and retrieving a box.

"Try this, Mr Potter. Willow and dragon heartstring, good for healing spells."

Harry held the slender piece of wood in his hand but felt nothing in his hand. Ollivander stared at him and then motioned for him to flick it. Shrugging Harry lightly flicked it...

And watched in horror as Ollivander's hair turned into a single flame. Severus countered the spell and put out the flame while Harry gently laid the wand back on top of the counter.

Ollivander hesitantly touched one hand to his white, flyaway hair before shaking his head vigorously, "That, Mr Potter, was not the wand for you. None the less, we shall continue."

He continued to retrieve boxes, each wand that Harry waved ended up leaving the room in an even worse state than it was before. The poor boy was near tears and Severus could see the guilt residing in the child's eyes as he stared at the destruction his magic was causing.

"Harry, look at me." Severus waited until Harry's glossy eyes met his, "When I came in for my training wand it took me three hours to find one. By the time I had found my own I had turned the shelves upside down, turned Mr Ollivander's robes bright pink and blown up all the light fixtures. You have only been in here for 1 hour and have caused more destruction than I ever could. But do you know what that means Harry?" Harry shook his head and wiped his nose, "You're a more powerful wizard than me." He finished, offering Harry a handkerchief to wipe his nose and dry his eyes.

Ollivander grinned down at Harry, "He's telling the truth you know. I'm hugely pleased with you. You're a very strong wizard and now I have brought you a very strong wand. Ash and basilisk fang. A very good wand for powerful magic."

Harry held out his hand for the wand and felt a warmth spread through him the moment his fingers wrapped around the dark wood. He flicked the wand and all the destruction he had caused immediately flicked back into what it was before, perhaps a bit cleaner.

Ollivander smiled down at the small boy, "I think, Mr Potter, that you have found your training wand. That wand will promote health and balance, aid in weather magic, transfiguration and elemental magic. Altogether it is a very powerful wand for a very powerful wizard."

Seven galleons and one happy dance later, Harry and Severus had flooed back to Prince Manor to get some lunch into the two of them.

Severus grinned as Harry chomped enthusiastically on an apple, taking small sips of milk in between bites. He had never seen a child so perfectly content to eat fruit. He nudged Harry's nutrition potion over to him and gestured to it with a nod of his head, chewing on his own ham sandwich. Although he loathed admitting it, Severus quite liked the plain sandwiches that Harry got. Children's food always seemed much better than food for adults.

Harry placed his apple and mug of milk onto the small table between them and gulped down the potion, ignoring the odd aftertaste that came with it. He was used to weird tastes after the gross foods that Aunt Petunia had given him when he was practically fainting. The potion was practically a walk in the park compared to some of those things, especially when they weren't good to eat anymore. Those ones always made Harry feel sick after he'd eaten them. At least he knew that the potion would help him and make him tall and strong.

Or at least that's what Mr Snape had said and Harry trusted him because he had taken him away from mean old Uncle Vernon and had healed him up. Harry liked Mr Snape.

Severus was lost in his own internal musings while consuming another sandwich. Damn those things were good. Okay, off the topic of sandwiches. Severus wanted to exact his revenge on the Dursley's. He didn't want to get the ministry involved as they could and would take Harry away from him. He was not willing to let that happen. He'd already grown attached to the child. Lily's child. Severus knew that Poppy would help him and, after letting her know, McGonagall would want in on the action. She wasn't completely Albus' puppet although she let the Headmaster believe that she was.

Harry had finished his apple and was munching happily on a peanut butter sandwich. As far as he was concerned, the Dursley's didn't matter anymore.

Two weeks had passed and Harry had put on four kg and grown two centimetres. Severus and Poppy were both please with his progress, as was McGonagall.

Severus smirked remembering the day the three of them had gone to the Dursley's to... _visit_.

The three apparated onto the front step of the Dursley's ticky-tacky house at 10:00pm.

Severus stepped forward and rapped his knuckles against the door three times before stepping back in line with other two. Due to Poppy's flare for the dramatic they were dressed in hooded cloaks, the hoods covering their faces in shadow.

"Just a minute," came the call from inside before Petunia Dursley opened the door dressed like a sixties housewife. She paused at the sight of the three forbidding figures in front of her, "C-can I help you?" she asked, glancing behind her to the living room where her husband was currently sitting watching T.V.

Severus threw back his hood and grinned toothily at Petunia, "Hello Tuney! Did you miss me?"

The horse-faced woman threw herself away from the door with a strangled scream, "YOU!" She tried to slam the door but Severus wandlessly swung it back and open so that the three could enter the house.

Minerva grabbed Petunia by the collar of her dress and dragged her through to the living room whereupon she threw her onto the couch next to her walrus-like husband.

Poppy and Minerva threw back their hoods and drew their wands, instantly binding all but the two muggles heads. Petunia started sobbing and Severus, disgusted, threw a _Silencio_ at he to shut the distraught woman up.

Vernon Dursley bristled at the intrusion into his home, "Here now! Who do you think you are? Coming into my home and terrorising my wife and myself."

Severus' glare quickly shut the man up and he smirked before leaning close to the man's ear, "Who do you think you are Dursley? What gave you the right to abuse a child all of his life. Lock him in a cupboard. Beat him, starve him. You enjoyed it didn't you? He deserved what he got. Was it because he was magic? Were you afraid of a two year-old Dursley?"

Vernon's face quickly went from a bright red to a sickly pallor, "W-what do you mean?" he squeaked, making Severus' smirk grow wider.

Poppy answered, "You hurt an innocent child you filthy little muggle, now you must pay for your crimes, as must your wife." Petunia began to sob harder and Minerva removed the silencing spell to hear what the woman was saying.

"H-he was j-just thrown on our d-doorstep. W-we never a-asked for him. W-we were s-stuck with the f-f-freak!"

Severus threw a stinging hex at her and grinned as she cried out in pain, "I'm a freak Petunia. Your sister was a freak as well. And we freaks don't like it when someone picks on one of our own. Especially a child. Especially a child who is the saviour of our world. It pisses us of Tuney."

McGonagall, Snape and Poppy pointed their wands at the two Dursley's and chanted as one, "_Justicia pro vestri vitium"₁ _

"You will feel everything you did to that boy for as long as you have done it to him. For six years you will feel hungry no matter how much you eat, tired no matter how much you sleep and you will always be in pain." Poppy spat at the two muggles.

Severus cast an additional spell to stop them from speaking or writing of this night to anyone. Minerva had already called social services and informed them of the way that Dudley was treated. By letting the boy get to that size and encouraging it the Dursley's were guilty of child abuse and Dudley would be removed from their poisonous care.

Severus gave one last smirk, "See you Tuney," before the three apparated away.

Harry pushed his book away from him and grinned up at Severus, "May we practice magic now Sev?" After a week with Harry in his care Severus had grown truly sick of being called Mr Snape and sir. After Severus had proven to be too difficult for the seven-year old Severus had made do with Sev.

Snape nodded and Harry let out a whoop, drawing his ash wand and waiting for his instructions. Harry was almost finished the first year curriculum of spells and Severus was pretty much teaching Harry every useful spell he knew.

"Alright Harry, I want you to use the vanishing spell to get rid of the tray."

Harry nodded and raised the wand pointing it at the tray and said, "_Evanesco_!" the tray and its contents vanished and Harry turned to Severus with a grin that split his face in half. Severus couldn't help but be surprised that Harry was already mastering spells that were taught to students twice his age.

"You did very well Harry, now what is the incantation to make a light?" he asked, leaning forward in his chair and resting his forearms on his knees.

"Um it's _Lumos_ Sev."

"Correct Harry. Now what's the wand movement?"

And that was how there afternoon lesson went. Severus asked Harry to do the spells and if the seven year old couldn't perform them he would help out. They would then practice writing with a quill and, after setting the spells to be practiced, Harry would accompany Severus to his lab and help him with potions.

As Harry painstakingly counted out beetle's eyes Severus smiled affectionately at him.

He rather liked having a son.

**Sorry about the shitty ending. It was getting long and I had no idea what the hell else to write or where to end it so I apologise.**

**Either way please review and tell me if you liked it. Constructive criticism is welcomed!**

**Make the world spin my dears, make it spin...**

**Hufflepufflikeslytherin**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm so sorry that this has taken me so long to put up! But with the beginning of the new year everything is very higgledy-piggledy right now so please don't hate me. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 5**

Severus Snape allowed a satisfied smirk to play on his lips as he read the roster for Christmas staffing. Only McGonagall, Flitwick and Dumbarsedore would be left with the few stragglers who remained at school which would allow him to go and see his... son?

The potions master shook his head at the thought and stalked away from the board in the staff room, slamming the door behind him as he left. He strode down the corridor with robes billowing behind him but against his will he felt his right hand slipping into his inner pocket and nervously fingering the sheaf of parchment he had tucked within.

Dumbledore still had no idea that Harry Potter; The-boy-who-lived; Saviour of the wizarding world, was in the care of one Severus 'Snarky Git' Snape, Hogwart's resident dungeon bat. The old man would have had a conniption if he'd known that said saviour had spent the last four months living with the Malfoys. Harry and the Malfoys had been introduced to one another a few days after Harry's eighth birthday and the Malfoy heir, Draco, had taken it upon himself to teach Harry how to be a Lord.

Severus chuckled darkly to himself at the thought of two hyperactive boys having free reign of an enormous mansion. Lucius was probably in hell.

It angered him that all these years Dumbledore had assured him that he was checking up on Harry and that he was fine and yet Harry had been gone for almost six months and the old fool hadn't noticed.

"Emerald eyes," he murmured to an empty patch of wall within the dungeon labyrinth. The bricks folded into each other to create an arch, similar to Diagon Alley's entrance. Brandishing his wand toward the empty fireplace a fire roared to life in the grate.

With a pinch of floo powder, he was gone.

Harry was having the time of his life. He and Draco were zooming around the Malfoys' quidditch pitch, chasing after a practice snitch. Narcissa had bundled them into layers upon layers of thermals and jumpers until they looked like little marshmallows waddling out through the snow toward the pitch.

They had shucked several layers of clothing until they were able to move their arms and legs before shooting off into the air on _Lighting-bolt's_, which were –according to Draco- the fastest brooms on the market.

Harry had never flown before. Obviously in the muggle suburbs there wasn't often the opportunity. Nor the broom. Or the knowledge that magic was possible. Although he'd dreamed about a flying motorcycle. But that was a dream so as far as Harry was concerned it didn't count.

So yes, Harry had never flown before. But he loved it. The cold wind whipping through his hair. The bite of the air that turned his cheeks and a nose pink. The way that the broom responded to the lightest of touches and he instinctively knew what to do.

Harry had found something he was good at. And he loved it.

Seeing Draco suddenly dive ahead of him he followed the blond in a steep curve until he was flying vertically, at right angles with the ground. The little speck of gold was shooting ahead of him as he leant forward until he lay flat against the broom handle, silently urging the broom to go faster.

As they neared the ground Draco shook his head and pulled up. The ground was getting a tad too close for him. He hovered in the air and turned slightly to grin at his best friend, expecting to see Harry grinning back. Harry wasn't there.

Draco gasped and quickly looked down to see Harry practically at the ground. "HARRY!" he screamed desperately, shooting off after his friend.

Harry had been tempted to glance back up when he thought he heard his name but the snitch was so close now; closer than the ground was. He reached out his arm and snatched the winged ball from the air, pulling up from the dive as he did so and soaring up and over the pitch.

Draco pulled out of his own dive and came to a halt, fumbling his way off the broom and onto the ground again as he stared wide-eyed at his friend who was performing a victory lap of the field.

Harry flew over to Draco and landed gracefully on the ground, beaming with pride as he held the golden ball tight in his fist.

"I caught it Draco! Did you see? I thought I heard you behind me but you can't be sure when the wind's rushing in your ears. Wasn't it brilliant flying like that? Absolutely amazing! Maybe we can do it again only-"

He was forced to stop as Draco launched himself at Harry and pulled him into a tight hug.

"I thought you were going to die!"

Harry stood shocked before hesitantly hugging Draco back, "I'm fine Drake, honest. No harm done. Were you really worried about me?"

Draco stepped back and then raised one eyebrow at Harry, "I'm a Malfoy, Harry. We worry when we feel like it. And I didn't feel like it. I was simply... anxious. Yes that's the word, anxious. After all, if you had died then Uncle Sev would have killed me and danced on my grave. And I'm too young and gorgeous to die." He ended with a toss of his head to move his fringe from his eyes before giving Harry a joking look.

The blond turned back towards the shed to return his broom and Harry followed to do the same, muttering a string of curses quietly under his breath.

Severus watched from one of the manor windows as Harry flew into a steep dive, racing towards the ground.

The potions master's breath caught in his throat as the small boy hurtled closer to the pitch, showing no signs of stopping. Just as he'd pulled out his wand and thrown open the window to cast a cushioning charm Harry pulled out of the dive, holding his fist high.

Lucius, who was standing beside Severus, let out the breath he'd been holding, "That was brilliant wasn't it Severus? Severus?"

He turned only to see the edge of a black cloak as it swirled past the door.

"Oh crap..." he muttered before hurrying after his friend.

Severus tore down the hallway, sprinting down the stairs before jumping the last six at the front door. He didn't slow as he raced across the snow laden grass towards the pitch where Harry and Draco were currently staring at him, surprised to see the usually reserved man running like a bat out of hell.

The potions master stopped as he reached Harry before quickly kneeling down and taking the child in his arms, "Don't know what you were thinking! Foolish boy... could have died... very dangerous. Do you know how scared I was?!" He pulled back to smooth Harry's fringe from his eyes before rubbing his hands up and down the eight year-olds arms, vaguely noticing that Draco had left to give them privacy at sometime during the speech.

"I'm sorry Sev. I didn't mean to scare you. And I wasn't that close to the ground, honest!" Harry's eyes were shining with a thin film of tears. He hated disappointing Sev more than anything. Although he'd never scared the man before, that was new.

Severus nodded and smiled before standing, hoisting Harry onto his hip. Harry put up the expected fight at being held but quickly gave up and wrapped his thin arms tightly around the man's neck. Severus started back to the mansion with Harry in his arms.

"It's okay."

Harry's eyes snapped open at precisely 7am on Christmas Day. He rubbed his eyes before wandlessly summoning his slippers from the wardrobe. Wandless magic was easier for Harry to grasp than it was for Draco. Both boys were already on the second year curriculum but Harry liked to practice using wandless magic even though it wasn't taught until seventh year. He crept from his room and snuck down the hallway, quietly opening the door at the end and peeking his head round the corner to see if Draco was awake. The blonde was tucked under his covers and curled into a ball, obviously fast asleep. Harry grinned, "Perfect..." he muttered, tip-toeing further into the room. With a smirk on his lips he cast a silencing spell around the room before creeping closer and kneeling down beside Draco's ear.

Harry drew in a deep breath, "MERRY CHRISTMAS DRACO!"

The blonde gave a shriek and propelled himself away from the voice, throwing himself off the bed in the same movement and landing with a resounding thud. Harry giggled at the loud groan that issued from the floor.

"So... you awake now Dray?" Draco's head popped up from his side of the bed, bleary eyed with a smirk firmly in place.

"Yup." He said, before hurling a pillow at his ebony haired house-mate.

A furious pillow fight ensued and by the finish both boys were covered from head to toe in feathers. Draco collapsed into laughter as Harry shook his head to dislodge the feathers from his dark hair.

"You look like one of father's peacocks!" the blonde breathed between laughs, clutching his side giggling at Harry.

Harry grinned, "You don't look much better pretty-boy."

Draco blanched at Harry's words and sprinted into the bathroom, intent on finding out how bad he looked. Harry held up three fingers and slowly put them down.

As the last one fell a scream carried out from the bathroom, "MY HAIR! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY HAIR!?"

Harry's laughter was interrupted as someone knocked on the door and he quickly removed the silencing charm and waded through the feathers to answer it.

"Hi Sev!" he grinned, blowing at an irritating feather that fell in front of his eyes.

A slender black eyebrow rose in vague amusement as Snape surveyed the room, "I should hope that my godson looks worse than you Harry." He noticed Harry's eyes grew saddened when he was reminded of Draco and Snape's relationship. However he couldn't resist a smile as the eight year-old's expression turned into a smile as he beamed up at him.

"He looks much worse Sev. Absolutely covered with feathers; although the ones in his hair are probably gone by now. He screamed when he saw himself in the mirror so I think that I won this round." Harry grinned up at his guardian before shaking his head again.

Feathers floated away from the unruly, black locks and settled on the carpet of feathers that now lay on the floor. The entire room was as white as the grounds.

Struggling to stop his own grin from escaping Severus cleared the feathers from the room and from Harry and Draco. Harry's quiet, "Thank you" was echoed by Draco's louder, "Cheers Uncle Sev!" from within the bathroom.

The potions master ruffled Harry's untameable hair and left the room with a murmured, "Merry Christmas."

The Malfoys, Severus and Harry all clustered around the Christmas tree in the family room.

"The big tree in the hall is just for show!" Draco explained, "All the really important stuff is under the family tree."

Draco and Harry nestled within the confines of a blanket, strategically placing themselves both near the fire and the tree, stealing most of the heat from everyone else. Narcissa and Lucius shared the loveseat while Severus sat in his favourite armchair. Draco leaned forward and snatched the first present situated under the branches.

"It's for you father." Passing the gift to Lucius who opened it to find a new wristwatch from his wife.

The rest of the presents passed in that fashion. Severus smiled as he unwrapped the photo album Harry had compiled, full of moving pictures of the months he'd spent with the Malfoys. The last picture was taken on one of the nights Severus had snuck out of the castle to see Harry. The two were both asleep in the armchair, Harry sitting in Severus' lap and curled up against his chest, Severus' chin resting on top of the raven head.

Harry had received presents from all the Malfoys, more than he felt he deserved in fact. The only person who had not given him a present yet had been Severus. He wondered if it was something that guardians did. Obviously parents gave you presents but maybe kids who didn't have presents had to consider being looked after as all their presents in one. Harry was so happy to be in Sev's care that he didn't really mind if he got a present from him or not.

Severus glanced over to the emerald eyed child who was admiring his new set of wizard's chess. With shaking hands he withdrew the sheaf of parchment from his pocket and stood, hesitantly making his way over to his charge.

"Harry?" Harry looked up with a questioning look at his guardian.

"What is it Sev? Didn't you like your present?" An anxious look overtook the child's features and Severus hurried to soothe him.

"No, no. It's very special to me and I know you worked very hard on it. However I wish to give you your present now."

Harry's anxious look melded into one of pure joy, "You got me a present?"

Severus held out the parchment to Harry, "Indeed. Perhaps you might read these to understand?"

Harry smiled and nodded, taking the parchment from the potions master's hand and unfolding the creased paper, eyes darting over the pages as he quickly read through the sentences.

Once he was finished he lowered the parchment into his lap but continued staring at the forms.

"Y-you want to adopt... me?"

Severus took a deep breath, "It's your choice. If you wish you can be my son and I will be your father."

Harry's head slowly rose until his emerald eyes met Severus' ebony ones, "A-and no-one can take me away?"

Severus shook his head, "No-one." He confirmed. In the next moment he found his arms full of eight year old.

"Of course I'll sign the papers... dad."

**Haha! Cuteness.**

**Hope you liked it. If you did (and if you didn't) leave a review! **

**Make the world spin please, make the world spin...**

**Hufflepufflikeslytherin**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay I know that it's taken me ages to update (although the lack of reviews did not help :D) but here it is! **

**Also I'm chucking a poll up on my page so you can decide whether this fic only covers first year or if it goes through all seven.**

**If you choose the former then I'll probably do a couple of sequels to get to the whole final battle thing. If the latter then this is going to take a long time **

**Your choice my lovelies **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, never will. *sigh***

Harry and Draco waved out the window as the red train began to pick up pace, sending billows of smoke back past their faces. The two elder Malfoys nodded curtly before spinning on the spot and disappearing with a loud crack.

The two boys sighed before sinking back into the covered seats with a sigh of contentment. Finally, after what felt like a forever of waiting they were on their way to Hogwarts. Harry had spent the most recent summer poring over his school books, determined to memorise every word. It wasn't hard to do so as the words and images seemed to implant themselves in his brain, tucked away in little mind files.

Severus was waiting for them at the school, unable to come and see them off for fear of rousing suspicion. Draco had suggested polyjuice but the adults and Harry had felt that it was too risky to do so when there could be reporters anywhere. Seeing Harry on the front page of the prophet with some stranger would probably arouse Dumbledore's suspicion.

After hours of deliberation and arguments they had concocted an amazingly simple plan to reveal everything to the headmaster, all thanks to Draco's inability to talk quietly.

*_Flashback_*

_The three adults sat clustered around a richly carved wooden coffee table, 'loudly discussing' what they would do about Dumbledore. Harry and Draco had given up trying to follow their complicated ideas and counter ideas after a few minutes and had instead settled opposite each other on the other side of the room to play a heated game of chess._

"_We can't just tell Dumbledore! He has more power in our world than I think we are giving him credit for." Narcissa said, at that particular moment arguing with her husband while Severus sat by and massaged his temples with the tips of his fingers. _

"_Narcissa, the old coot is going to find out anyway, why wait? If we tell him now he can't take Harry from Severus. He is Harry's legal father. If we throw this at Dumbledore then we have the element of surprise!"_

_Severus lifted his head from his hands to regard the blond aristocrat, "And what will you do when he takes your 'element of surprise' and throws it back at you before petitioning for Harry's magical guardianship and declaring me an unfit father?"_

_Draco gestured to the adults with his head before exaggeratedly rolling his eyes, causing a bark of laughter to slip from between Harry's lips. _

"_I don't get it," Draco murmured before directing his bishop to take Harry's rook, "Why don't they just make the subject of guardianship untouchable using a Ministry contact and, instead of telling Dumbledore, wait until the idiot figures out what's going on. That'll give us all more time to make sure that there's no possible way that Dumbledore can take you away from Uncle Sev and also make sure that your mind is perfectly occluded so the bearded idiot can't slip in."_

_Looking up for the first time since he'd started talking he was startled to see everyone looking at him as if he'd suddenly turned his hair into a cat. Worrying at the thought he quickly reached up with one hand to smooth down his platinum hair before addressing his gobsmacked family._

"_What did I say?"_

_*End Flashback*_

After some revising and changes they'd followed this plan to a T. Lucius had 'persuaded' one of the more senior members in the Department of Magical Child Welfare to shut Harry's case and make Severus' guardianship absolute. Without Dumbledore's interference Draco and Harry could remain friends and both be sorted into whatever house the sorting hat chose. On that particular note no-one in their family doubted that the two would end up in Slytherin and, in accordance with this presumption, Severus had promised to take a picture of Albus' face when the hat called out Slytherin for Harry.

Harry came out of his musings with a harsh jerk when he felt something small impact his head. He glanced up and saw a little note hovering in front of his nose.

He glanced over to Draco who was smirking before unfolding the little note.

_You're a twat._

_Draco._

"Really? That's the best insult you could come up with. Pitiful," he said with a theatrical shake of his head and a heavy sigh.

"Shut up Potter."

"No, shan't!"

"Well you suck!"

"_No_, really?"

"I shall ignore your childishness and instead respond with a mature and responsible question. When do you reckon the trolley's coming around? I'm dying for some liquorice wands."

Harry grimaced at the mention of his least favourite sweet, "I don't get how you can palate that stuff? Everyone else in our family hates liquorice. You need to face the facts Draco; Bertie Bott's are by far the best."

Draco grinned, hefting a sack of gold in the palm of his hand, "Good that we can afford both huh?"

For a while they both sat there, Harry reading a 6th year potions book and Draco playing chess against himself.

"Aah Draco, I see that you are employing a Spanish Opening," he paused and flipped the board around, "But I have a counter strategy that will rock your tiny little mind, bring it on Draco."

"Excuse me..."

Draco let out a small yelp, whipping around to the door and almost knocking over the chess board in his haste to stare at the intruder.

A petite girl with wild, curly brown hair stood in the doorway, already dressed in her Hogwarts robes. Behind her was a large-ish boy, also dressed in robes and sniffling pathetically while wiping his eyes.

"Um, hello. I was wondering if either of you had seen a toad? Neville's lost one."

Draco straightened in his chair and smirked, "That will be Longbottom huh? The beginning of the year and already you've-"

"Drake, shut up." Harry said quietly before silently shutting his book and gently laying it on the seat next to him.

Draco glared at Harry with a sour expression before sighing and turning back to the two in the door, "I apologise for being rude to the both of you. I don't always think before I speak. Bad habit I'm afraid."

The girl smiled gratefully at him and muttered a quiet thank you before turning back to Harry who had drawn his new wand from its sheath. The wood was black ash and had a small chunk of iron pyrite embedded into the handle. It glinted dully in the light. The core was a mixture of basilisk fang, phoenix feather and ashwinder skin. Harry and Draco had both been taken to a special wand maker in Knockturn Alley to buy their specialised wands and both were happy with the precarious mixtures of light and dark that resided within the slivers of wood.

Harry gently swished his wand, incanting, "_Accio_ Neville Longbottom's toad."

The three eleven year olds waited in silence before they heard a whizzing sound from outside. Harry merely held out his hand and caught the toad, grinning at the awed look on Hermione's face at this casual display of magic.

"Is this him?" he asked, gently stroking along the toad's back.

They boy, Neville, nodded eagerly and reached forward to gather the toad into his arms.

"Thank you so much! My Uncle would have killed me if he knew I'd lost Trevor before I'd even started school."

Harry smiled at him before turning back to the girl who was stumbling over her words in barely suppressed eagerness, "B-but...not first year...where did you learn...fascinating...how?"

Harry let out a rare grin, something he didn't usually do in any company other than his family.

"My father taught me. It's actually a fifth year spell but it's very useful. Draco knows it as well."

Hermione blushed when she glanced at Draco before beaming at the two of them, "My name is Hermione Granger; I'm the daughter of two squibs so I didn't expect to come here but I'm so very glad that I did. I've read all our books, have you? I've learned all about the houses and I have to say that Ravenclaw sounds brilliant for me although I suppose I wouldn't mind Hufflepuff. I'm afraid that the Gryffindors I've so far met have not been very kind."

She said all this very fast and it took the two boys a couple of seconds to catch up. Having done so they both asked the same question, "What did they do?"

Hermione blushed further and looked down at the ground while fiddling with the edge of her skirt, "They made my hair turn green and spelled my nose to look like a pig snout. I only told them that they were pronouncing the spell wrong!"

Draco smiled sympathetically, "It's okay. But maybe it would be easier if you didn't correct people all the time. Wait until they ask for your help or only offer it if they really seem to need it. I learned that the hard way when _someone_," here he paused to glare at Harry, "hexed my lips and made it so that I couldn't speak for a day. The world went an entire day without my voice. The horror!"

Neville burst into chortles before quietly edging out of the compartment and towards his own. Hermione however, stayed.

"Would you mind if I came in here with you guys? I'm afraid the people in my compartment didn't like me much."

Harry and Draco shared a glance promising to deal with that later before both agreeing with a loud, "Of course!"

"There's a Blibbering Humdinger in your hair Harry."

Harry grinned at the dreamy voice and looked up from his book to direct his beam towards the willowy blond girl standing in the doorway.

"Hello Luna, ready for school?" Luna smiled at him before sitting down on the seat beside him and beginning to run her fingers through his hair, searching for Blibbering Humdingers.

"Of course I'm ready for school. Daddy said that it's important to keep studies up and look," she held up a pair of earrings with small radishes dangling from the silver, "These are to keep Snargalumpfs away. Would you like a pair?"

Harry smiled, "I'm good for now Luna."

The Malfoy-Snape family had met Luna at the book shop in Diagon Alley and she and Harry had become pen pals afterwards. Upon finding out that Luna would miss out on Harry's year at Hogwarts by only 3 days Lucius had appealed to the board and got her in a year early.

Draco looked up from where he had been playing chess against Hermione, "Hello Luna!"

Luna smiled over at him but didn't answer, instead pulling out of a copy of the Quibbler and beginning to read the outlandish magazine.

Harry grinned, "Want to share?"

The ride to Hogwarts was fast and, after following Hagrid along the platform and down to the boats, the four friends clambered into one small vessel and gripped tightly onto the sides as they floated out over the clear glassy lake.

"Look lively now. You'll get your firs' glimpse o' Hogwarts up ahead."

Against his will Harry felt his jaw drop as he got his first glimpse of Hogwarts Castle. The imposing building rose before them, lit up at every possible window, the light reflecting across the lake.

"Wow..." a collective sigh rose up from all the first years, prompting a rough chuckle from Hagrid.

The clambered out of the boats as soon as they reached the shore and scrambled up the steep path to the castle, walking in clusters and gazing round at the grounds in awe.

Shuffling forward, Hagrid knocked on the huge doors three times before stepping back and waiting. A moment later the doors creaked open to reveal a stern looking woman, her dark brown hair pulled back into a severe bun above the neck of her green robes.

"Thank you Hagrid, that will be all." She barked, her voice leaving no doubt in the minds of the first years that she would not be fun to cross.

Hagrid lumbered off and the first years quickly scurried after the professor who spoke to them in a stern and clear tone, "My name is Professor McGonagall and I am both Deputy Headmistress and Transfiguration professor. I am also Head of Gryffindor House. I hope those of you that enter my house this year will live up to our proud name." She paused at the top of a staircase and stared down all the first years, "There are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. You will be sorted into these houses based on certain," she paused to glance at Draco, "attributes. In a moment the doors will open and you must come up the center aisle and wait there in a single file line."

With that she turned and swept through the doors, shutting them behind her and cutting off the chatter they could hear from inside.

Harry and Draco were discussing chess strategies when a boisterous red-head shouldered his way through the crowd to stand in front of them.

"Harry Potter?" he asked brusquely.

Harry glanced at the boy through his fringe, restraining the urge to sneer at the superior look on the boys face, "Yes. And you would be?"

Before the red-head could speak Draco cut in, "Wait, let me guess. Red-hair, second hand robes and more freckles than could be counted in a vampire's lifetime. You must be a Weasley."

The boy turned bright red at Draco's words, "No-one asked you, you slimy little snake," he turned back to Harry and plastered a bright smile on his face, "Anyway Harry, my name is Ron Weasley and I believe that you'd rather be friends with me than with stupid little Malfoy here."

He extended his hand and waited, obviously expecting Harry to take it.

Harry shook with suppressed rage, "You," he spoke clearly, his words imbued with cold rage, "had best not insult my friends again. The consequences would be...unpleasant."

Ron paled at the implications in the statement before backing away, mouth working like a goldfish.

Harry glanced around and realised that all the other first years had stopped to listen.

"Oh bugger off," he muttered.

**Okay, yes I know it's a short chapter but I was racking my brains and I'm afraid that there wasn't a hell of a lot there to work with so please accept this chapter, meagre as it is. **

**Maybe a review will help **

**Spin my world darlings, spin it!**


	7. Chapter 7

**HEY! I'm back. Again. YaY!**

**Anyways, here's the seventh chapter of Fallen Phoenix. It's been a bit of a bitch to write so I apologise for the long waits you've had between chapters.**

**Disclaimer: I have no connection to the creation of Harry Potter I just adore the books. I also quoted the song directly from the book and that's in bold so please forgive me... **

**HERE WE ARE MY LOVELIES!**

Harry started as Draco clapped him on the shoulder after his argument with Weasley.

Draco grinned at his startled friend before gesturing towards Hermione who obviously didn't know how they were going to be sorted.

The brunette stood beside a dreamily smiling Luna and was wringing her hands together while muttering incantations to herself. Harry smiled gently at the worried witch and quickly strode forward and laid a hand on her shoulder, his smile stretching into a grin when she jumped and spun in mid-air to face him.

"Calm down Hermione. All you have to do is try on a hat which will sort you based on your attributes and traits. Although, if you really hate where the hat's going to put you, you can ask it to change its mind but remember; the hat is almost _always_ right."

Hermione gave a weak grimace and muttered her thanks, letting out a sigh of relief as the tension leaked from her shoulders.

"I'm just worried. I want so badly to prove myself to everyone; prove that I deserve to be here. I mean, my parents are both squibs and I know that a lot of people won't believe that I can do half the things they can and I just wan-"

She stopped abruptly as the cluster of first years surrounding them screamed and gasped at something behind Harry's head. He quickly whirled around, stepping in front of Luna and Hermione and automatically reaching for his wand where it resided in a dragon-skin holster, only to drop both hands to his sides.

It was the just the school ghosts having a conversation as the drifted through the wall.

"I think we ought to give Peeves another chance. Let bygones be bygones and all that."

"My dear Friar, we've given Peeves all the second chances he deserves."

"Excuse me," Harry called. The ghosts turned to him with a start, not expecting to be addressed during their conversation by a timid first-year.

"Can we help you, child?" The portly ghost who had been addressed as Friar asked, a jovial smile quickly replacing the look of shock which had previously been there.

"Well sir, I'm afraid that you're scaring a majority of our party and I feel it may be beneficial if you were all to continue on to your destination, which I presume is the Great Hall."

He brushed off the bemused stares that he received from both the first years and the ghosts and instead turned to engage Lune in a conversation about the possible uses for Wrackspurts if they used them in potions.

The ghosts shock was more surprising for, not since the 1950s when the young Mr Riddle had been at school had one of the younger children been polite and brave enough to consider the fears of the other first years.

The Friar nodded to the group at large before turning to Harry, kind smile still in place, "Of course, young man."

Harry nodded courteously towards the ghosts and with that they glided away through the large doors in front of them, just in time for McGonagall to come back.

"First years, follow me," she said in her crisp Scottish accent before turning towards the dark oak doors which opened onto the great hall.

The first years gasped at their first look at the gorgeous space.

The four houses were seated at long, dark tables, each student swathed in black and turning in their seats to stare at the gaggle of eleven year olds as they filed in through the doors, their shoes making muted clicks on the marble floor. The marble stones of the walls rose up into the ceiling where they abruptly stopped as the ceiling turned into a star spangled night, occasional dark clouds crossing over the twinkling beacons of light.

Harry had to use all the pureblood etiquette Lucius had ever instilled in him to make sure that his face remained calm, even as he inwardly gaped at the ceiling. His Severus had told him that the ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky but he'd never been able to get across the point of how very beautiful it was.

A gentle nudge from Draco made Harry turn his head towards the blond. Draco's face was a blank mask in accordance with the Malfoy image, but Harry could see the awe and amazement in his eyes.

The two boys allowed muted snorts to escape them when Hermione leant over to whisper to them, "The ceiling's enchanted to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, a History."

They paused just below the head table, no-one in an actual line but in a sort of cluster, all of them trying to be in the middle so as to avoid the stares of the older students who were craning their necks to get a look at them.

Harry, Draco, Hermione and Luna somehow ended up at the front of their little queue. The four glanced at each other and Hermione clasped Luna's hand in nervousness.

Professor McGonagall re-entered the hall carrying a worn wizards hat and a short wooden stool, placing the stool in the centre of the podium on which the staff table resided. The hat was placed on top of it and then it opened a gap between above the brim and sang.

**"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,**

**But don't judge on what you see,**

**I'll eat myself if you can find**

**A smarter hat than me.**

**You can keep your bowlers black,**

**Your top hats sleek and tall,**

**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat**

**And I can cap them all.**

**There's nothing hidden in your head**

**The Sorting Hat can't see,**

**So try me on and I will tell you**

**Where you ought to be.**

**You might belong in Gryffindor,**

**Where dwell the brave at heart,**

**Their daring, nerve, and chivalry**

**Set Gryffindor's apart;**

**You might belong in Hufflepuff,**

**Where they are just and loyal,**

**Those patient Hufflepuffs are true**

**And unafraid of toil;**

**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,**

**if you've a ready mind,**

**Where those of wit and learning,**

**Will always find their kind;**

**Or perhaps in Slytherin**

**You'll make your real friends,**

**Those cunning folk use any means**

**To achieve their ends.**

**So put me on! Don't be afraid!**

**And don't get in a flap!**

**You're in safe hands (though I have none)**

**For I'm a Thinking Cap!"**

"I will call your name and you will come up and sit on the stool before going to the house you are sorted into," she called before extracting a parchment scroll from her sleeve.

"Abbott, Hannah!" she called.

A round faced girl emerged from the flock of new Hogwart's entrants, her blonde hair shining gently in the candle light.

The first years watched with baited breath as she slowly walked forward and sat on the stool cringing as the Hat was dropped over her eyes.

There was a moment's pause before the Hat spoke again.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" it cried. Hannah lifted the hat off and skipped over to the yellow and black house of badgers.

The rest of the sorting seemed to go by very quickly. Harry was only brought back to reality when Hermione's name was called.

She ran forward eagerly and jammed the hat on her head, bouncing slightly on the stool as she waited. The hat seemed to be taking some time to make up its mind before the brim opened wide again and shouted, "RAVENCLAW!"

Hermione leapt off the stool, turning to neatly place the hat in the centre before skipping off to the blue and bronze house that were clapping enthusiastically for their newest arrival.

Luna was also placed in Ravenclaw and the hat had barely touched Draco's platinum blond hair before it screamed SLYTHERIN!

Sally-Anne Perks was sorted and then it was Harry's turn.

"Potter, Harry!" McGonagall called.

The entire hall burst into whispers and mutterings as Harry calmly swept forward, his black robes billowing behind him in an almost perfect imitation of his father who was sitting at the very end of the staff table, looking completely disgusted with the proceedings, although Harry was pleased to note that the potions master had an anticipatory gleam in his eyes as Harry seated himself on the stool and sat patiently as the hat was lowered over his eyes.

"_Potter. I'd been wondering when you'd get here."_

Harry inwardly smirked, "_Yup, here I am. Do you think you could get round to sorting me please?"_

The raven haired boy could practically see the hat's look of indignation as it continued, "_Fine then. What have we got here? Plenty of brains I see... enough to give Ms Granger a run for her money... very loyal but not overtly kind to everyone... a good thirst to prove yourself... and plenty of courage as well."_

Harry barely restrained a snarl, "_If you put me in Gryffindor I will creep into Dumbledore's office in the dead of night, tie you in a knot, dip you in oil and use you to set the room on fire. Got it?"_

"_Well, based on your __**comfortable**__ use of threats I think it had better be SLYTHERIN!"_

The last word was spoken to the entire hall and Harry swept the hat off in relief, smirking as he noticed the complete silence in the hall. The teachers and students were all looking at him in abject horror, terrified that their saviour could be going into the house of evil wizards.

He stepped down from the platform and walked over to the Slytherin table to sit in between Draco and Daphne Greengrass. There was a smattering of applause from some of the Slytherins but as a whole they were all shocked.

Harry waited for a minute and, when McGonagall had not read out the next name, perhaps too shocked that the son of two of her favourite students was in Slytherin, he stood and addressed the hall at large, "Please don't stop on my account. I believe that my new year mates are still rather anxious to be sorted."

With a smirk he re-seated himself and waited patiently throughout the rest of the sorting. His father maintained a collected mask as he looked down at his son but Harry could see his black eyes sparkling with approval.

As the sorting ended McGonagall took the stool and hat back into the side room and came back to sit in her seat beside the Headmaster who rose from his own high backed chair to address the hall.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts. It's wonderful to see so many familiar faces looking up at me and also to see some new faces," Harry and Draco exchanged amused looks, "Now I think that only a few words would be necessary before we all tuck in and those words are: Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak! Thank you."

Harry and Draco began to serve themselves from the food in front of them, each opting for steak and vegetables over the less healthy options. After glancing up at Severus they both received a slight nod and ladled up a spoonful of mashed potatoes with them. With Severus Snape as head of Slytherin he had decided that the Slytherins would get only healthy foods, unlike the other teachers, he was unwilling to allow his snakes to be unhealthy.

As a result even the dessert had frozen yoghurt and fruit rather than the cakes that other houses had. The Slytherins were okay with it as they knew that it was only because their Head of House cared about them.

"So Potter, are you at all surprised to be in Slytherin?" Blaise Zabini asked, causing the housemates nearby to begin subtly listening in.

Harry smirked at the Italian, "It's hardly surprising to go where you should Zabini. I'm sure that any respectable witch or wizard would wish to go to the house of the ambitious. I hope that I can assist in any way possible to help lead Slytherin to greatness."

Blaise nodded in response and the Slytherins who had listened nodded appreciatively. In one sentence he had both shown his loyalty to Slytherin house and asserted his authority as a leader. Those who were smart enough to realise the uses that could stem from being friends with saviour of the wizarding world were already making plans to align themselves with him .For the time being at least, until someone with more influence came up.

As the last scrapings of pudding disappeared into mouths the sweets all disappeared from the golden plates as Dumbledore rose once again from his chair. He spread his arms wide as if to hug the entire school, "Now that we are all fed and watered I hope you can cope with a wheezing man's waffle before you go to bed. As always the Forbidden Forest is off-limits to all students," he sent a stern look towards the Weasley twins who both looked back at him innocently, "Also for this year the third floor is off limits to those who do not wish to die a most painful death." He smiled gently at everyone in the room after this less than comforting announcement, "Now I think it is time for all of us to go to bed. Off you trot."

Draco leaned over to mutter to Harry, "Trot? What are we, horses?"

Harry stifled a snicker but sent an amused look at his friend. Marcus Flint stood up and gestured for the first years to rise as they were the only ones still left at the Slytherin table.

"Alright," he called, "Single file and follow me."

They quickly jumped into line behind the burly fifth year before following him through a maze of corridors and down flights of stone steps until they reached a dark part of the castle with water slowly trickling down the rough hewn walls.

They finally reached a stretch of wall which had no water marks and was marked by two black snakes, entwined around a staff.

"Our entrance is marked by a Caduceus. It is there to remind us that we stay by our own and protect each other. It is also there to remind us that when fighting with the other houses we never physically harm them. Slytherins are above such things. We should only ever need to use our words. Professor Snape will give you a detention if he finds that you are fighting. The password is Caduceus. Remember it. The password will be changed every Monday so make sure to ask what the password is before you leave for breakfast in the morning. Follow me."

He led them through the door that had appeared at the muttered password and into a wide cavernous room, artfully decorated with chaises and armchairs, all clustered around a blazing fire. Several of the armchairs were occupied by the older students. There was an obvious hierarchy. The seventh years were given the seats by the fire and the years younger than had to sit in the chairs and couches further away. Heat wasn't a problem as there was a strong heating charm on the room to keep it warm.

Flint led the first years to the centre of the room and told them to wait before Professor Snape came through and gave them his traditional start of year talk. The first years stood, quietly chatting to each other.

Harry turned to Draco, "This is nicer than I remember it looking during the holidays."

Draco smiled, "I'm pretty sure that they must redecorate it every year. We just happened to be here a year where everything was done well."

The raven-haired boy's face lit up with a mischievous grin, "You know I can't help but wonder what the other common rooms look like."

Draco returned his grin, "Sounds like a good idea Potter."

They both lapsed into silence as Severus Snape swept through the door, his robe billowing behind him as he came to a stop in front of the first years.

"That will be all Mr Flint," he said to the prefect who nodded curtly and went to join his friends by the fire.

The professor stayed quiet for a moment before addressing them in a silk-like voice.

"You are the lucky few who have been sorted into the prestigious house of Slytherin. I expect you all to live up to the grand history of this house and to do your best to receive house points. You will find that, in this school, we are discriminated against because of our house and founder. In light of this I expect you all to stick together. Keep petty fights within this common room and do not show a lack of unity in front of other houses. Your year-mates are your new family. Respect them. If you have any problems then speak to the Prefects whose names and portraits are on the board over there. If the problem is serious then they will send you to me." He paused to give a quick look over the Slytherins to see who was paying attention. They all looked at him with respect and a small amount of fear in their eyes.

He knew that eventually they would lose that fear of him and grow to trust him but for now the fear would help them learn to fully respect him.

"If you need help with homework you can come to me or any of the prefects. My office is just down the hall and all you need do is knock and wait. If I am not there within one minute then I am probably not there and you will most likely find me in the staff room. Do not be afraid to approach me. I will not ignore you like it is known for the other heads of houses to do. Now, it is 10 o'clock and I think you should all go to bed. Boys dormitories are downstairs to the left, girls to the right. You may pick two room-mates for each room in the dormitories. They will be your room-mates for the rest of this year. Remember that any squabbles you have must be sorted out inside the house. The rules of this house are on the board and you may look at them tomorrow. For now all of you must go to bed."

They began to trot off together, quickly deciding who would room with who when Severus called out, "Mr Potter please stay behind."

Harry paused and plastered a surprised look on his face as he walked back toward his professor. He called back to Draco, "Save me a place in the dorm with Blaise would you?"

Draco nodded with a smile before heading down the stairs into the dorms.

As the room emptied Severus turned to Harry with a soft smile on his face, "I'm proud of you Harry. Good job in surprising McGonagall. I honestly thought she could never be surprised. You have, yet again, proved me wrong."

Harry grinned impishly up at his father and gave him a quick hug, "You know Minnie, and I know Minnie. Goodness knows why she doesn't know me well enough to know that I threatened the hat unless he'd put me in good old Slytherin."

Severus smirked down at his son. It was ridiculous how similar they were by now. In their sense of humour and their dedication to study they were truly like father and son.

"Well I don't wish to keep you up after all. You need to show up all those Gryffindors tomorrow."

Harry smiled and gave his father a smile before heading off towards the stairs. At the foot of the stairs he paused and turned back toward his head of house.

"By the way father, for my sanity, never say 'squabble' again."

**MWAHAHAHAHA! **

**It's done! Well this chapter. Not the story. That would be boring. **

**So next chapter we're going to start on Harry and Companies rather mischievous antics around the school. **

**If you have any ideas apart from the ones in the original story then please tell me these ideas... in a review!**

**Make the world spin my darlings, make it spin...**


	8. Chapter 8

**Do you know what is quite possibly the most annoying thing to happen when you're trying to write a chapter? Your laptop keeps freezing. After every, single, sentence. It's hell. Add a dash of whooping cough and your life sucks. **

**Luckily the 40 reviews got me through it. But let's move past the fact that I'm a review whore and scroll down to the story. Go on. You know you want to...**

**Okay here's chapter 8 **

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE HARRY POTTER SERIES! *wipes away a tear.***

Harry jerked awake as a loud ringing sounded from his wand which lay on his pillow. In the beds on either side of him Draco and Blaise rolled over with twin groans of disapproval.

Harry grinned as Draco's voice crept out from beneath his pillow as he grumbled, "I really hate you Potter. So much. As in heaps. I hope you fall over. Lots. Stupid alarm clock."

Blaise, who was already wide awake and smiling, snorted before rolling out of bed and onto the floor beside it. Harry smirked over at the Italian boy, "Very graceful, Blaise." As he straightened his tie he felt a pillow smack against the back of his head with a soft 'fwump'.

Dropping his cloak to the floor Harry whipped around and grabbed the pillow before it hit the ground to hurl it back at Blaise, snickering when it hit Blaise square in his smirking mouth.

Draco was unaware of the mini war happening behind him and had instead managed to drag himself out of bed and was trying to pull on his robes backwards, "Alright, let's go to lunch. I mean uh breakfast. Yeah, breakfast."

After freshening up it was a group of bright-eyed first year Slytherins who swept into the hall in a group, quickly moving to their table by the wall and sitting quietly together.

Harry cringed when Draco ladled up a heaped spoonful of porridge. Severus had given him porridge only once. The result had been less than pleasant for the house-elves to wipe off the ground. In short, Harry thought that porridge was disgusting; however he refused to allow his distaste to show on his face. Instead he simply sent a hidden glare at Draco to show his disapproval.

Harry turned back towards the delicious assortment of breakfast foods, opting for his favourite; a bowl filled with slices of fruit and spoonfuls of berries. Knowing that his father would be angry if that was all he ate he quickly laid two slices of toast beside the bowl before digging in.

The potions master came down from the teacher's table and began to hand out timetables to his Slytherins, patiently answering the queries that he was peppered with by the anxious first years. A blonde-haired and blue eyed girl who Harry thought was one of the Greengrasses was particularly anxious, asking almost ten questions before finally allowing her head of house to continue.

Snape reached Harry, Draco, Blaise, Vince and Greg and quickly handed out their timetables.

Harry grinned. Double potions first with the Gryffindors. Carefully modulating his grin into a neutral expression he surreptitiously looked over to where Dumbledore sat at the head of the hall. Harry inwardly grinned when he noticed the concerned look that Dumbledore was shooting him as he sat comfortably with the other Slytherins. The headmaster may act tolerant but Harry knew that he disliked Slytherins in general and would not take kindly to his 'Golden Boy' chatting and hanging out with his house.

Sure enough he noticed the silver bearded man lean over to Professor McGonagall who nodded and quickly made her way over to Harry at the table.

She quickly cast a privacy charm around Harry and herself, "Mr Potter, Headmaster Dumbledore," Harry had difficulty maintaining his neutral expression when she practically spat the name, "wishes to see you in his office before first spell so if you head off now, I'm sure you know where it is?"

As Harry nodded he noticed his father came sweeping back down the table, "There isn't a problem is there Minerva?"

The stern witch smiled thinly at her former student, "It would appear that the Headmaster wishes to see Harry before first spell. I believe that it has something to do with his sorting and placement in Slytherin."

Severus sneered and then removed McGonagall's privacy charm before addressing Harry, "Mr Potter please come with me and we shall go to the Headmaster's office."

With that he glided out of the hall, not even waiting for Harry to follow him. Harry did so quickly, leaving the hall with his cloak swirling behind him as he swept out of the doors.

His father was waiting there with a slight smirk on his face. Barely moving he cast a specialised privacy charm which would allow people to see the two of them with fairly neutral expressions while they could talk as they wished.

After the spell was cast Severus flashed a grin at Harry, "Picking up on my habits are we Mr Potter?"

Harry feigned shock as they set off toward Dumbledore's office, "Me? Be like you? Perish the thought, father!"

The two smirked amusedly at each other before gliding up two flights of stairs and strolling over to the Gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office.

Severus quickly lowered their privacy ward with a wave of his hand before addressing the gargoyle, "Ice Mice." His lip curled in distaste at the password and Harry snickered before they both stepped up onto the slowly circling staircase. Both black-clad figures quickly strode up the steps before the swirling staircase could deposit them at the top.

Severus opened one of the doors and swept in. Harry followed in his wake, sniggering quietly when his father set himself down on one of the chairs and beckoned him forward with one potion stained hand.

Harry glided forward and gently slid onto the other chair opposite the headmaster and looked expectantly at the silver-bearded man.

The twinkling blue eyes regarded him quietly before he spoke, "Severus! What a surprise. And young Harry, finally I can speak to you, my boy."

Harry raised one sardonic eyebrow, "It's the first day of term Headmaster Dumbledore and I would rather that you address me as Mr Potter. I am not, under any circumstances, _your_ boy."

The twinkle died down in Dumbledore's eyes while a mischievous glint appeared in Snape's who was trying hard not to laugh at the old man's face.

Dumbledore cleared his throat uncertainly, obviously struggling to gather himself after being rebuffed, "Yes of course Mr Potter, forgive an old man, you do look so much like your parents and I was very close to them. It is almost automatic for me to address you as such." The blue eyes regained their twinkle, annoying both father and son to no end, "The reason that I've called you up here it simply a matter over which I feel some concern."

Harry's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, "And what matter would that be Headmaster?"

"Why the matter of your sorting of course!" he exclaimed, "I'm sure that you would rather be in your parent's old house, Gryffindor."

"No."

Dumbledore's eyes widened behind his half-moon glasses, "Excuse me?" he asked.

Severus answered for Harry, "I believe that Mr Potter responded to your original question. His answer was in the negative meaning that, no, he does not wish to be re-sorted into Gryffindor and is, I would presume, quite contented in Slytherin. Am I correct in my guesswork Mr Potter?" He finished, turning to Harry who nodded gently.

"Completely correct Professor Snape," he remarked, his green eyes dancing wickedly as he turned back to the Headmaster, "I'm afraid that I will need to be excused now sir as I have my first potions class and I don't believe that it would be wise for both the teacher and student to be absent from class, do you?"

Dumbledore shook his head, looking ever so slightly bemused. This meeting hadn't gone at all how he'd expected he thought as the two left his office. He rose from his wing-backed chair and walked over to the fire. It was about time he talked to Arabella again.

The potions classroom was full of chattering first years when Harry and Snape arrived.

"Silence!" Severus called, suppressing a smirk when they immediately shut up, "Mr Potter find a seat."

Harry nodded and automatically looked over to Draco. The blond grimaced from where he was sitting next to Zabini, both boys realising that there were no seats left next to the Slytherins.

Harry knew you what this meant, he had to sit next to, and dare he think it, a _Gryffindor._ Looking over to the group in red and gold he noticed something which could definitely help him later. Neville Longbottom was sitting alone at the back, completely shunned by his year mates while he nervously tapped his fingers on the desk-top.

Making up his mind Harry quickly strode to the back of the classroom and stood beside Neville at his desk, "Hey Nev, do you mind if I join you?"

The chubby boy looked up at him and then nodded shyly, pulling in his chair a bit to let Harry slip past to the other stool.

Both boys looked up as Severus started writing on the chalkboard. He wrote up his name and then the words 'Boil Curing Draught'. Harry grinned, having made this potion back when he was only eight years old. Neville on the other hand, gave an audible gulp and shook just slightly.

Severus finished writing and placed the chalk on his desk before turning back to the class.

"You are here to learn the subtle and precise art of potion making. There will be no foolish wand waving in this class so those who have got them out had best put them away now," he paused and there was a faint scramble as some of the Gryffindors rushed to stow their wands away, "I can teach you how to brew fame, bottle glory and even put a stopper in death. That is, if you aren't like the bunch of dunderheads I usually have to teach."

Harry sniggered quietly causing Neville to look at him in surprise. He knew that Harry seemed a bit ballsy but he didn't realise that he was suicidal.

"Potter!" Snape barked out from the front of the classroom.

Harry looked up at his father with the faintest hint of a smirk on his face, "Yes Professor Snape?"

"What would I get if I added powdered asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry grinned. That was a 4th year question.

"I believe you would get a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the draught of living death. "

Snape's thin lip curled up, "Correct Mr Potter. Clearly you felt it could be wise to open a book before you came into my classroom; however before I'm sure about that perhaps it would be best to check. Where, Mr Potter, would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?"

"In the stomach of a goat sir."

Snape nodded, "And what, is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" One dark eyebrow rose up as the potions master appraised his son. Harry had been learning about more complex and interesting potions ingredients recently and this was obviously a test.

Harry furrowed his brow in thought before smirking up at his teacher, "They are the same plant sir, also known as aconite."

Snape sniffed delicately before nodding, "All correct, Mr Potter. 20 points to Slytherin."

The Slytherins all shared a smirk before diligently beginning to copy down what Harry had said. Harry nudged Neville to invite him to do the same.

The Gryffindors simply sat there, none of them having understood a word that had been said.

Snape turned around from where he had written the words 'Boil Cure' on the board and snapped at the Gryffindors, "Why aren't you writing this down? One would assume from the looks on your clueless faces that you don't understand anything that has been said."

He turned back towards the board and Weasley took the opportunity to turn to Neville at the back and whisper to him, "Consorting with snakes now are you Longbottom? You're a disgrace! Some Gryffindor you are!" He turned back towards his desk, looking very please with himself before he blanched, finding himself face to face with the Slytherin Head of House.

"What was that Mr Weasley?" he hissed, his voice instilling fear into the entire class, "Did I hear you insulting someone from your own house? I hope that it has sunk into your tiny mind that he would not have been sitting alone had you simply sat with him. In my eyes you are the disgrace."

He swept towards the board with everyone looking after him in disbelief. Was Ron to get no punishment?

The potions master paused and turned back, "And that will be a detention Mr Weasley; at 7pm this evening. I already have some messy cauldrons which I'm sure you would take great pleasure in cleaning manually."

Harry sniggered as the red-head's jaw dropped.

This year was going to be a lot of fun for the Slytherins.

Draco sprinted to catch up with Harry after class.

"Oi! Potter! Hello, stop moving!" Harry paused and watched in amusement as his blond friend tore through the crowd of students and came to a stop beside him, panting heavily, and blond hair in disarray.

"Hello Draco, did you want something?" he asked, turning and continuing to walk along the stone hallway.

Draco glared at his best friend, "Yes you dimwit. I know that Longbottom's nice and everything but why are you sitting with him a-and being nice and actually trying to be a friend? I can understand deviance and manipulation; I am a Slytherin after all but still; why?"

Harry paused in his stroll before continuing, "Well, think about it; the more people who I can get on my side, the less that can be on Dumbledore's or Mouldy-shorts side. I've already got Hermione and Luna in Ravenclaw and let's face it; Neville's isn't going to last long in the Lion's den. If we can petition for a re-sorting then Neville will be in Hufflepuff and there's no chance that they won't like him, he's too clumsy and likeable. Then, all we need to do is get someone from Gryffindor on our side."

Draco snorted as they climbed up flights of stairs toward the library, "Oh yeah? And who on earth could you find in Gryffindor who would want to speak to the 'evil dark lord in training'?"

Harry's grin grew darker, "Well, my father told me something about James Potter. He was a prankster. In fact he was part of one of the most famous prankster groups Hogwarts has ever seen; the Marauders. Who else would the twins idolise but my biological father and his friends? My best way in is by telling them that I'm the son of a Marauder and, bam, brand new followers, two of the most popular guys in their house and definitely two of the most persuasive. I'll be in control of almost every single person in the four houses. Dumbarsedore and Mouldy-shorts are screwed."

He strolled through the double doors and into the library but Draco lingered behind.

"You are absolutely mad," the blonde muttered before following his friend into the library.

**MOOHAHAHA! That even sounded like a proper ending for a chapter! JOY! **

**Anyway, I apologise for the lack of updates recently but I have been busy with schoolwork and piano and singing and sport and... AAAAAAAAH! **

**It's exhausting. **

**But do you know what will make me feel better? **

**REVIEWS!**

**Make the world spin my darling, **_**darling **_**people. Make it spin...**


	9. Chapter 9

**BLAME SKYRIM! **

**Skyrim is the devil and has managed to ensnare me in its net of glittering weaponry... forgive me **

**Remember, don't hate the player hate the game...**

**On that note let us continue,**

**Disclaimer: I OWN HARRY POTTER! ***_**I'm lying**_*****

Harry could feel the warmth of the fire next to him. The cheery flames danced back and forth across the logs as he sat against the hearth. He stared at the flames. They were so mesmerising... so warm.

He shifted uncomfortably as the fire began to burn brighter, flames leaping out of the hearth and skittering dangerously close to the dark wood. As emerald eyes watched the blaze rose higher, engulfing the fireplace as it spread, swathing Harry in unbearable heat.

He cried out and unfolded his legs from beneath him as the flames crawled across the floor towards him, tendrils of heat licking along his legs as he tried to skitter away. The flames crawled closer and rose up to swallow him before suddenly...

They disappeared.

Harry pulled his arm across his face to wipe the sweat from his forehead, shaking in intense fear. As he began to pull himself to his feet he heard a voice.

"Boy!"

Harry froze, halfway to standing. He turned towards the huge man dominating the room.

"Uncle Vernon," he whimpered, the sounds catching in his throat as they were uttered.

Vernon's face split in half in a cruel grin, "You didn't think you could escape me did you freak? I own you!"

Harry cried out as he felt the intense pain of belts flying across his back for the first time in years.

Severus, he needed Severus.

Dad...

Draco awoke with a jerk when he heard the whimpers and cries sounding from the bed next to him.

"Harry," he muttered, before hastily throwing the covers off and rushing over to his friend's bed.

He shook the small boy while murmuring to him. It was hopeless. He wouldn't wake up. He drew back and stared at his whimpering friend before quickly making up his mind and rushing to the fireplace to throw in a handful of green powder.

Severus awoke suddenly to hear his name being called from the sitting room of his small chambers. He quickly rose and pulled on a black robe before slipping through the hall to the fireplace.

Imagine his surprise when he saw his godson's face bobbing worriedly in the flames.

"Uncle Sev!" the blond called, his face frantic with worry.

Severus knelt down in front of the blaze, feeling his insides coil in fear even as he spoke, "What's wrong Draco?"

Draco pulled in a ragged breath before launching into an explanation, "It's Harry Sev," Snape blanched, "He's having a nightmare and I can't wake him up. He's crying a-and screaming and I can't wake him up! You need to wake him up Sev, please, I can't wake him up!"

Severus felt his heart skip a beat before he was on his feet and flying to the door.

"I'll be there in a minute Draco!" He called as he sprinted down through the corridor, his mind racing a million miles a second. What was wrong with Harry? He hadn't had one of these nightmares since he was nine. Severus felt his blood boil as he thought of what Dursley had done to his son and the permanent damage it had caused. He'd had a glimpse into Harry's mind only once to see the nightmares and knew how terrifying they were for the eleven year old.

Not even pausing at the Slytherin entrance, he walked straight through the arch that the wall created for him in his haste to get to his son.

He crossed the room in three strides before flying down the circling stairway toward Harry's room. As he drew close to the ebony door he could hear Harry's cries beginning to grow in pitch and volume as the nightmare reached its peak.

With a burst of wandless magic the door was opened in front of him and he strode through and over to Harry's bed where the dark-haired boy lay, thrashing in the green covers as Draco hovered by his side, trying to calm him.

"Draco, go and sit on your bed," he ordered, not even waiting to see if his godson obeyed before sliding onto the bed and pulling Harry into the cradle of his arms.

"Shh, Harry. Shh. It's just a dream. When you wake up you'll find Draco sitting opposite you. It's me, Severus. Dad, remember? Come on Harry, wake up," he murmured, crooning softly as Harry's sobs began to change as he woke and became aware of his surroundings.

Severus' heart clenched at the wrenching sobs that tore from Harry as the distraught child sobbed into his chest.

"Dad?" came the question, several minutes later.

Severus looked down and smoothed the unruly hair from Harry's forehead.

"I'm here son. Was it the dream again?"

Harry shuddered and burrowed closer into Severus, nodding weakly against him.

"I couldn't stop him. He was so much stronger than me. I-I wish I could have stopped him Sev. I wish that you'd been there."

Severus swallowed painfully against the lump in his throat, "I wish more than anything else on this earth that I could have been there for you. You couldn't have done anything Harry and he can never hurt you again."

Harry sighed and pulled away from his father, rubbing his eyes, "I know that he can't hurt me _physically_ anymore but, in my dreams, he can hurt me just as badly as he ever did in reality. How can you fight something that's in your head?"

Severus pretended to stroke an imaginary beard for a moment, prompting Harry to laugh, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny glass vial full of a translucent blue liquid.

"Perhaps, a vial of dreamless sleep could provide adequate rest for your oh so important brain, hm?" The potions master smiled at Harry's snigger before the boy reached out and accepted the vial, tipping back the draught and swallowing it quickly.

He leant back against his pillows and looked back over to Severus, waiting for the potion to take effect.

"Harry?"

Harry nodded slowly to indicate that he'd heard.

"What's been giving you such bad headaches recently?"

Harry looked up in shock. He thought he'd been hiding the pain rather well but obviously it wasn't well enough. He sighed, there was no point trying to hide it now.

"Well," he began, "ever since the beginning of the year when I had my first class with Quirrell. I don't why but my head always aches after I leave. It gets worse whenever he's close to me though and the pain is centred around my scar. Do you- do you think it has something to do with the Dark Lord?"

Severus stayed silent in surprise. He'd never known Quirrell to be a death-eater but he remembered the shrewd Slytherin that Quirrell used to be. He had no doubt that the man was capable of helping Voldemort.

"I don't know Harry," he admitted, "but I assure you that I will find out. Now, no more questions. Go to sleep."

He leaned forward and gently placed a kiss on Harry's head, before sweeping out of the room, smirking when he saw Draco sprawled out across his bed in slumber.

The next few months passed quickly and Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna and Draco became closer, working as a study group during the afternoons.

"I can't wait for the Halloween feast," remarked Draco, "There's going to be lollies. Lots and lots of lollies. This should be rather enjoyable."

Harry grinned at his friend and then shared a look with Luna. Draco's obsession for everything sweet would never fade.

Hermione cringed as she saw Ron Weasley headed toward them with his two little sidekicks, Zacharias Smith and Seamus Finnigan. The three enjoyed teasing Hermione the most, much to Draco's annoyance.

"So, little orphan Pot-head. Out for a stroll with your stupid friends?"

Hermione couldn't resist, "Shut up Ronald. We're on our way to the feast as should you be."

Ron sneered at her as he flicked a floating bat decoration away from his ear, "Why don't you just leave the conversation you stupid little _girl_. I think it should be clear by now that no-one likes you!"

Hermione flushed and pushed past him, sprinting away down the hall, books held tight to her chest.

Draco's grey eyes were burning a bright silver, "You're going to pay for that Weasel-bee," he spat, pulling out his wand and training it on the young Weasley within a second.

Ron pulled out his wand with a flourish and lazily pointed it at Malfoy, "Bring it on _Malfoy_."

Just as Draco was ready to cast a familiar voice sounded down the corridor, "Mr Weasley! What do you think you're doing, aiming your wand at an unarmed student?"

Snape swooped down towards the two groups and stood over them, looking at Ron's group with obvious disdain.

Ron spluttered, "W-what, he's got his wa- wait. Where'd it go?"

They all looked back to Draco whose wand had already been stowed quickly back into its holster.

Snape's eyes glittered with malice as they regarded the young Weasley, whose skin had turned a rather unbecoming shade of puce.

"I don't see Mr Malfoy's wand out Mr Weasley and as such I shall take 10 points from Gryffindor for your attempted attack on fellow students. Next time it will be a detention. Now, I believe that all of you should be going into the feast."

The two groups glared at each other one last time before turning towards the Great Hall and walking through the double doors.

Harry and Draco sat down at the Slytherin table and began to serve themselves helpings of roast pumpkin and beef. Harry noticed that Draco's eyes were darting between the door and the Ravenclaw table, obviously looking for a familiar head of bushy brown hair.

Hermione was nowhere to be found.

As the dishes were cleared of dessert the doors crashed open and Quirrell came sprinting in, shouting, "TROLL! There's a troll in the dungeons!"

With this last remark he promptly fainted and fell to the ground, causing an uproar through the students as they cried out in fear.

Dumbledore raised his wand and shot out fireworks which went off with a loud bang, making the hall fall silent.

"All students are to return to their dormitories immediately. Prefects escort them. Teachers, come with me."

Harry and Draco dutifully began to follow Marcus Flint before they turned to each other in horror.

"HERMIONE!"

**And because I take great pleasure in being a bitch I'm going to end it there because it's late and I have school tomorrow. **

**SORRY! **

**Please review. It makes the world go round backwards which (according to cartoons) means that we will travel back in time and then we can meet all the cool people like ninjas. **

**BYE!**

**Hufflepufflikeslytherin**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you Midnight Angels for pointing out my goof in chapter 5. It has been changed now. I'm sorta slow sometimes and don't quite get all the little mistakes I make so THANK YOU! **

**Anyways, here's the next chapter of Fallen Phoenix. Sorry it's taken so long but my laptop is **_**really**_** slow.**

**HERE GOES! **

Draco and Harry wasted no time in sprinting down the hall towards the girl's bathroom, dodging behind a statue of a three eyed dog when the teacher's ran past in a cluster. Dumbledore's fluorescent orange robes billowed out behind him as he ran. Harry noticed that Professor Quirrell was not with them.

"Draco..." he hissed, nudging the blond's arm.

Draco, whose eyes were scanning the hall for further hindrances, turned to the dark haired boy and nodded with a quick jerk of his head.

He knew the same thing. Quirrell wasn't there.

The Malfoy heir slid from behind the statue and quickly ran down the stone hallway, Harry hot on his heels. They both slammed to a stop at the door to the bathrooms and drew their wands.

"Oh shit..." Draco muttered.

In front of them was a monstrous troll with mottled grey skin and, as Harry couldn't help but notice, a particularly over-sized club in its enormous hand.

Draco's eyes widened when he spotted Hermione cowering underneath one of the sinks. His grey eyes began to smoulder before he threw his first spell.

"REDUCTO!" The club was reduced to dust as the red light hit it.

The troll looked down stupidly at its hand, searching for the club. Draco used its distraction to sprint forward and grab Hermione's hand.

"Run!" he shouted, "Mya, you have to run!" but Hermione was too scared to move and instead she simply cringed further into the wall and shut her eyes tight, shaking.

Meanwhile Harry was throwing spells at the troll in a repetitive chain, slowly weakening the troll.

"Stupefy, Reducto, Petrificus totalus, Stupefy, Reducto, Petrificus totalus!" he chanted, smirking to himself as the troll suddenly let out a low groan before keeling over onto the floor, shaking the school with the impact.

Harry glanced over to his friends who were huddled over against the wall, Draco trying to comfort Hermione as she sobbed.

Sighing, he tucked his wand back into its holster before sweeping across the room and hunkering down in front of Hermione.

"Mya?" he murmured, "Why the bloody hell did you believe what Weasel-bee said? You _know_ that we're your friends don't you?"

Hermione's tear stained face peered up at him as she lowered her arms.

"I-it's just that...at m-muggle school, everyone h-hated me. What Ronald said j-just, brought it back I g-guess." Her face grew red as she wiped her face on her sleeves before looking up at her two friends with a look of determination on her face.

"You know what?" they both shook their heads mutely, "You're right! You are my friends and Weasley can't say anything about it! As far as I'm concerned, he should take a long walk off a short pier and enjoy the swim!"

Hermione gave a little smile at what she considered a very grave insult while Harry and Draco restrained their laughter at her little moment of pride.

Their laughter ended as they heard footsteps rushing down the hall towards them before Dumbledore, Flitwick, McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell came through the doorway, all of them stopping suddenly when they saw the troll lying on the floor of the bathrooms, a rivulet of drool trailing from its mouth.

McGonagall swelled with righteous anger before turning to the three first years.

"What," she thundered, "happened here?!"

Harry took a step forward to explain when, to everyone's surprise, Hermione stepped forward.

The brunette looked up at the teachers through her eyelashes, "You see professors, I ran in here earlier because I needed somewhere to cry."

Before she could continue Professor Flitwick interjected, looking furious that someone had caused one of his Ravens to cry, "Why were you crying Miss Granger? Not one of these young men I should think," he asked, his eyes sternly settling on Harry and Draco who evenly returned.

"No ,no," Hermione rushed to reassure him, "It was Ronald Weasley sir. He told me that I didn't have any friends and he called me stupid and, I feel so silly now, but at the time it just really hurt and I ran in here to cry. Next thing I knew there was a troll in here and Draco and Harry were fighting it off. It wasn't their fault professors. If anyone is going to be punished it should be me."

When she finished she looked down at her feet and allowed a few tears to escape and trickle over her cheeks.

Snape immediately saw through her act and smirked. _What a Slytherin_, he thought.

McGonagall turned to Professor Dumbledore who nodded and took a step forward, "None of you will be punished for your actions although Mr Malfoy and Mr Potter, you should have come to get a professor instead. I will leave your Heads of house to give points where they see fit. Minerva, you may deal with Mr Weasley. "

With one more nod, Professor Dumbledore swept from the room, Quirrell scuttling out soon after.

Flitwick toddled forward and reached up to pat Hermione on the shoulder, balancing on his tiptoes to do so.

"Miss Granger, I believe it would be best for you to go to your dormitory. The rest of the feast will be held there so you may spend the rest of the evening with Miss Lovegood. I believe that twenty points may be given to Ravenclaw for your story for the headmaster. Brilliant acting."

The minute professor gave her a wink before leading her out of the bathrooms and toward Ravenclaw Tower.

Harry and Draco turned to Professors Snape and McGonagall. Both teachers had thin smiles on their faces.

Harry grinned up at his father, anticipating the question that would be asked, "Draco destroyed its club and I kept casting spells until it fell. Hermione mostly cried but she has had not training so I guess it's to be expected."

Snape's thin smile grew into a small grin as he ruffled Harry's hair gently.

McGonagall, who had been straightening Draco's silver and green tie turned to the two of them and addressed both of the boys, "Although I am unhappy that you put yourselves in danger I _can_ understand that you wanted to protect your friend. As such I am awarding twenty points apiece to Slytherin."

Her dark eyes grew softer as she looked on the two boys before she moved to the door.

"Minerva," Severus called after her. She paused, "What are you going to do about Mr Weasley?"

McGonagall's face grew icy cold.

"I'm sure that Argus always needs new help."

**And that's it. I'm going to chuck up another chapter tomorrow but for now, I'm stuffed and I really want to sleep. **

**Bye bye guys! Please review. It makes me smile like this, :D! **


	11. Chapter 11

**HELLO! How are we all? **

**So here it is and I have spent many hours crying onto the laptop keys as I try to think of stuff to write so be kind and caring and love me forever! (or just read and review you know, either one.)**

**Also I noticed some constructive criticism and for that I thank you! Alright, I made Quirrell a Slytherin because I felt like it and I do know that he's in Ravenclaw but I enjoy twisting everything to suit me. Also, the troll incident. Although in the original story this was used to cement the trio's friendship it was also the distraction that Quirrell used to be able to get through the trap door so that's the reason that I used it. **

**Disclaimer: J.K Rowling wouldn't accept a bribe so I own nothing. **

Ronald Weasley's day was starting off perfectly. He'd woken up at 8:00am, well after the rest of his housemates had gone down to breakfast. He'd found a shirt that didn't smell and was able to copy Seamus' Transfiguration homework before slowly meandering out of the common room to the love of his life. Food.

He plonked himself down between Seamus and Dean and proceeded to pile his plate high with an array of waffles, sausages, eggs, bacon and grilled tomatoes. With a grin he piled the first helping into his gob and chomped away, spraying the food across the table as he spoke with his friends.

Everything was going perfectly. Until his food began to move.

-**This is a line break**-

Harry had been having a difficult time trying to think of an adequate punishment for what Weasley had done.

His inspiration came in the form of Draco's lesson for Hermione on pureblood etiquette.

"Food," the blond had said, "must never leave the utensil you are eating from. Soup should not drip from the spoon and vegetables should not slide from the fork."

Hermione, who by this point was looking very sleepy, looked up at Draco with a very doubtful look on her face, "The problem with you Draco," she said, "is that I can't tell whether or not you're lying. I mean, it sound so utterly ridiculous, what if it was a mistake?"

Even Harry turned to her from where he'd been perusing the library's bookcase to give her a look of disbelief, "Mya, there's something very important to understand. Any respectable pureblood child will, by the age of 6, be expected to prevent such things from happening. It's all solved by taking small mouthfuls. Not such a big deal but it does make it look neater."

Neville piped up from his corner of the little reading den, "Then why is it that Ron has the manners of a pig?" he asked, gently caressing the leaves of the tiny white lily that rested on his knee.

"You did hear Harry say respectable right?" Draco snorted, turning back to the book with Hermione and beginning to explain the next passage of napkin etiquette to the brunette.

Luna noticed as Harry's eyes glinted a dark emerald green.

"I think the bargleflumps have infected you Harry."

-**This is a line break**-

Ron's eggs rose up from his plate and morphed into tiny little roaring lions, the cats launching at the red head's face and clawing at his cheeks, leaving behind trails of egg.

Ron yelped before leaping up from the table, swatting at the growling breakfast food. Around him, all the food had turned into the mascot of the respective house.

Ravenclaw was being dive-bombed by eagle shaped food stuffs, the caws of the feathered beings echoing among the cries and laughter of the hall. Hufflepuff's table was strewn with pumpkin juice as the Puffs darted every way to avoid the grinning badgers. Even Slytherin's own table was under the assault of snakes that would give you a rather squishy bite.

Ron's perfect day went even further downhill when he felt his feet leaving the ground. His terrified gaze fell on the tables which were slowly getting smaller below him. The food animals ceased their attack and fell to the ground as the spell holding them ceased leaving the school free from attack and perfectly able to look up at Ron in his amazing floating wonder.

"Help!" he screamed, the word coming out in a shrill cry. His cry prompted the laughter of the thousand students as they watched the boy struggle in his invisible bonds.

The teachers, who had previously been absorbed in trying to halt the food fight, now looked up at Ron where he hung, suspended by an invisible rope from the cloud strewn ceiling of the Great Hall.

Dumbledore rose calmly from his high-backed chair and regarded the floating Weasley over the rim of his half-moon glasses.

"Calm down everyone!" he called to the laughing school. Some students quieted at the commanding voice but many could not contain their mirth and so continued to laugh at the red-head.

Dumbledore flicked his wand from beneath his sleeve and flicked it about, whirling it in an extravagant motion before saying, "_Finite Incantatem_!"

The hall paused to hold its breath. Harry's eyes flickered with a moment of expectation.

Ronald Weasley did not come down.

Ron's cries rose to an incredible volume.

"Let me down! I don't wanna be up here! Let me down you idiots!" His face was growing red as he shouted and cried and worked himself into a frenzy. Dumbledore's blue eyes continued to stare confusedly at the youngest Weasley boy before he turned back to address the school.

"Whoever has done this," he called, "has placed a lock on their spell. I ask this person to please step forward and get Mr Weasley down."

The school remained silent and Dumbledore's lined face grew dark.

"NOW!" he barked, the entire school jumped at his shout before all looking awkwardly at each other, shifting guiltily from foot to foot.

Draco, gently nudged his way into Harry's mind.

"_You heard him Harry. He said to let Weasley down, now." _

Harry smirked softly.

"As you wish," he whispered before gesturing sharply toward Weasley from under the cover of the table top.

The red-head let out a sigh of relief as he began to slowly descend. His relief quickly turned to terror as the paved floor of the hall began to rush up towards his face.

Just as the teacher's leapt forward to perform a cushioning charm on the ground below him, he stopped.

Weasley let out a gasp as he found himself staring at the ground a mere few inches from his freckled nose.

He dropped to the ground with a thud as a strange voice echoed around the hall, "A warning."

-**This is a line break**-

Harry rubbed his aching head as he sat in the back of Quirrell's classroom. His nose felt like it would permanently be wrinkled thanks to the overpowering scent of garlic in the room.

By his side, Luna had given up on listening to Quirrell and was openly reading the latest article in _The Quibbler_, Snargalumps, Fact or Fiction?

As he leaned over to take a look he felt a sharp pain rip through his scar.

"_You..." _a strangely familiar voice hissed in his mind.

Harry looked up at Quirrell's turban as the man wrote on the board.

'_Voldemort?'_

-**This is a line break**-

Harry, Hermione, Draco and Luna were situated by the fire in the library when Neville hobbled in, clutching a bruised arm to his side and panting heavily.

"Neville!" Hermione cried, immediately leaping to her feet and guiding the black-haired boy to one of the cushioned seats.

Luna rose quickly from her chair and began performing general healing charms but Draco stopped her with a gentle hand on her wrist.

"We need to take him to Madam Pompfrey first," Draco explained.

Hermione glowered at the blond, completely ignoring Neville's feeble attempts to speak, "What on earth do you mean Draco? Neville needs to be fixed up and Luna is perfectly good at it. We need to help our friend!"

As Draco opened his mouth to respond Neville weakly piped up from his seat, "Hermione, although I appreciate what you're saying Draco's right. This is the worst that Ron and his stupid cronies have done and, if we can have Madam Pompfrey sign off on it, then I can be resorted and get away from that ass."

Hermione's mouth dropped open at Neville's response. Although she had grown used to restraining her mouth and listening to others she had still never heard Neville utter such a complete sentence.

Harry rose from his seat, "To the hospital wing it is."

-**This is a line break**-

Dumbledore formed his fingers into a steeple, quietly regarding the black-haired boy that sat before him.

"I'm not sure if I can allow it Mr Longbottom."

"Albus Dumbledore!" Madam Pompfrey snapped, her kind blue eyes turning cold and vicious, "This child is in danger in his own house and I will not stand for it. Professors Sprout and Flitwick have vouched for him and Professor McGonagall has agreed. Now would you please retrieve the sorting hat and let him be placed where he belongs?"

Seeing the stern-faced woman who stood before him Dumbledore quickly rose from his desk and snatched the sorting hat from its perch before politely passing it to Neville.

"If you're sure then," he sniffed before returning to his chair and leaning back.

Neville gulped and lifted the hat onto his head, sighing in relief when the black material covered his eyes.

"_I've seen your head before. Did Gryffindor not turn out the way I'd hoped?"_

The sorting hat sounded regretful so Neville hastened to reassure him, "_Oh it's not your f-fault Mr Hat. You see they just didn't l-like me much and I g-guess that um, maybe I belong somewhere else now?" _

The hat grinned in Neville's head,_ "Oh I think I know precisely where to place you Mr Longbottom. It had better be _HUFFLEPUFF!"

The last word was spoken aloud and Neville smiled before removing the hat and gently placing it on its shelf.

The red and gold piping on his uniform faded and was replaced by thick lines of yellow and black.

Professor Sprout strode into the room, hands covered in dirt.

"I have a new Puff!"

**And that was a weird way to end it but I felt like it and I'll put another chapter up really, really soon! **

**BYE!**


	12. Chapter 12

**And Kia Ora koutou. How are we all this fine day? I know I'm great 'cause guess what. I HAVE 70 REVIEWS! IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Well maybe not some people but you know, you can't win everything. **

**Anyway here's the 12****th**** chapter. Only took me a week! Yeah! **

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter thinks that I'm a Death-eater so I still don't own the series or anything recognisable. **

November ended with no great excitement as the entire school turned its collective eyes toward Christmas. Flitwick could be found in the Great Hall, decking the hall with clusters of golden baubles and enchanted icicles that would never melt. Snowflakes were enchanted to gently fall during meals but evaporate before they touched the heads of the students.

Sprout and Hagrid were seen marking trees on the border of the Forbidden Forest, picking the best for the Great Hall. Hagrid spent a Saturday hauling the giant trees up to the castle and depositing them in the corners of the Great Hall. Once they were situated the female teachers and Flitwick were quick to spring upon them and dress them with long trails of shimmering metallic chains, enchanting candles to float above the end of each bough and, in the case of two of the trees, enchanting the trunk to glow golden and silver.

It was in this cheerful environment that five first year students resided in the library to plan their moves for the Christmas Holidays. Hermione, Neville and Luna all had plans to return back to their homes for the Christmas Holidays and, as such, had skipped the opportunity to jot their names down on the list of children staying at the school. Harry and Draco however, had been told stories by Lucius and Severus of the wonders of Hogwarts at Christmas and so they had chosen to remain at the castle.

Hermione looked concernedly at the two boys sitting across from her in the library.

"Are you sure that you two wouldn't want to go to Malfoy Manor for Christmas? I mean your family must be missing you dreadfully."

Draco smiled at the bushy-haired girls concern but shook his head.

"No Mya, it's okay. We can stay with Professor Snape, he's my godfather after all and he's Harry's-"

Harry cut him off abruptly, "He's practically my god-father as well, isn't that right Draco?"

Draco looked confusedly at Harry before realising what he'd been about to reveal. It wasn't that they didn't trust Hermione and Neville. It was just that the library was not the place to do so; far too many people who could easily overhear such a conversation.

Neville's blue eyes narrowed at the pair, "You're hiding something, aren't you?"

"Only that Professor Snape is Harry's legal father because he adopted him a few years ago."

Hermione, Draco, Harry and Neville all turned to Luna with shocked looks on their faces.

"Luna! Do you really think that this is the right place to bloody _announce_ it?" Harry hissed at the dreamy girl who sent him a sweet smile.

"I'm not an idiot Harry. I cast a silencing charm before Neville even spoke. Have some faith. The nargles haven't completely infested the castle yet so I don't forget everything. I think it will be best when I leave the castle for Christmas. Then I can wait for the nargles to clear out." Her smile bewildered the entire group as she turned back to the purple scarf she'd been knitting.

Neville was murmuring to himself in the corner, "Professor Snape...insane...Dumbledore's gonna, oh crap Dumbledore!" he quickly turned to where was seated and hurled question after question at him, "Won't Dumbledore be angry? When were you adopted? Were you ever going to tell us? Is that why you do that weird thing with your cloak?" He paused as Hermione shushed him.

"Calm down Neville. I'm sure that Harry and Draco had perfectly good reasons for keeping this from us." She turned to the duo, "You do have a good reason right?"

Harry smiled at the girl, "The main reason is, as Neville was so eager to point out, Dumbledore. That old fart could easily ruin my life and, by connection, he would ruin Lucius, Narcissa, Draco, Luna and dad. If you guys stick with us then you might be hurt by association. Dumbledore definitely has a lot of power and respect in our world and, well it's your choice. I wouldn't want either of you to get hurt in this kind of argument."

Neville and Hermione both sat very still as they pondered what he'd said. Harry resisted the urge to fidget as the emotions flitted over their faces. Confusion, doubt, thoughtfulness and most worryingly of all, decision.

Hermione nodded briskly before telling her decision, "To be perfectly honest I'm surprised that I didn't see how similar the two of you were before this. There are so many similarities I'm amazed that Dumbledore hasn't noticed yet. But, if Dumbledore is really someone who would hurt you then, I'm completely on your side. You don't need to worry about that."

She smiled at the dark-haired boy before giving him a quick hug. Harry gratefully returned her hug before turning to Neville who still sat quietly in his armchair.

Neville glanced up at them all before looking back at his feet, "I really want to say no. Dumbledore is friends with my grandmother. He's always been close to my family. But, when he was going to refuse to resort me, and some of the stuff he just keeps messing up, I'm on your side as well Harry. You can count on me."

Harry sent him a very grateful smile and Hermione hugged him with a squeal.

"Hufflepuff," said Luna, "the house of the loyal."

**~~This is a line break~~**

Hermione, Luna and Neville waved goodbye to Harry and Draco as the carriages pulled away from the school. The two Slytherins were the only first years to stay behind and were being joined by, to their annoyance, the entire Weasley clan.

The two boys returned to the Slytherin common room where, after shucking their school robes and changing into more comfortable everyday clothes, they proceeded to engage in a furious game of exploding snap.

"Hey Drake," Harry began, "What do you say to going into the Forbidden Forest and having a bit of a poke around?"

Draco slapped his hand down on top of the pile before it could explode and replied, "I think that Sev would skin us alive and then painstakingly reattach every piece before lecturing us on safety. Other than that, sounds like fun."

Harry smiled as he lay his card down, "You know Drake, I agree."

The blond nodded as he continued to play.

"In fact," said Harry, "I think that we should definitely _not_ sneak out at around eleven tonight and we should most assuredly not go _anywhere_ near the Forbidden Forest."

Draco nodded his head, "And we should definitely not take our wands and have a proper duel like we haven't been able to for ages. No, that's completely irresponsible."

**~~This is a line break~~**

The two Slytherins crept silently through the deserted castle towards the front doors. The moon cast long shadows against the stone walls as they slunk between the pools of light. Their breaths came out as billows of white cloud in the cool night air.

"Thank Merlin," Draco breathed as they found the front doors unlocked with no bar across them to hold the giant doors closed.

With a subtle flick of his wand Harry had the right door pulled ajar, the gap large enough for the two small boys to slip through with ease. They did so and were quickly sweeping over the grounds and towards the darkened forest. The grounds seemed so forbidding at night as the long shadows crept across the rolling hills. The two first-years hurried until they reached the sanctuary of the dark trees.

"Here goes," Harry muttered, before quietly lighting his wand with a quick _Lumos_, hearing Draco do the same beside him.

The forest rustled around them as they brushed past the scratching boughs. The reaching branches snagged at their loose robes as they clambered over fallen trees, keeping their wand-lights high. Their footsteps fell lightly against the thick layer of twigs and leaves that littered the ground. The forest floor was clear of snow due to the heavy forest cover.

The two were unable to stop their wonder at the finally being able to sneak their way into the forest. Their travels took them far into the forest, until the trees overhead were so thick that the moon no longer gave light to their path. It was then that they had to face the facts. They were completely lost.

"Harry, I think that perhaps we might want to turn around."

Harry's green eyes narrowed as he surveyed the area of forest in which they'd found themselves. The leaves were being blown about by a bitter wind and the trees creaked around them. Draco was right.

"_Point me: _Hogwarts." He said, holding his wand loosely in the palm of his hand.

The dark piece of wood twisted in his palm to face somewhere off to his right. The two of them began to trudge that way. They had not been walking long when Harry held out a hand to halt Draco.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, barely focusing on Draco's confused question as to what it was he'd heard. Harry was too absorbed in hearing the slithering sound that drifted to him through the trees.

"It-it sounds like material dragging on the ground," he turned to Draco with an alarmed look, "Someone's out here with us, and from the feel of their magic, they are not feeling friendly."

Draco reached out with his own magic to taste the foreign magic that permeated the air around him. He reeled back as he touched the strangers magic. It felt metallic, hot and rusty. Like blood.

Draco swallowed hard, "Okay we're leaving _now_."

Just as the two turned to leave they heard something huge crashing through the brush towards them. Their hands had automatically whipped their wands out and they held them protectively in front of themselves as the sounds grew louder. They lowered their wands slightly when they heard the voice that accompanied the crashing.

"Back Fang! Back! Harry! Malfoy! Don' think I didn' see yeh scuttlin' down from the school! Yeh should know better! Oh, there yeh are!"

Hagrid came wading through the brush towards them, a heavy iron lantern dangling from his gigantic fingers.

His black eyes glittered brightly in anger as he looked down at the two of them.

"Wha' were yeh thinkin'? Yeh could ha' been killed or worse! Merlin knows yer lucky I was the one tha' found yeh or we'd all be in trouble."

He brushed off their filthy winter robes with hands the size of large frying pans before grabbing their collars and dragging them through the trees back towards the school, Fang trailing happily at his heel.

"Jus' wait till Professor Snape finds out. Boy, will he be angry. I fancy yeh'll get detentions for the res' of the holidays. Serves you righ' if you ask me. Sneakin' into the Forbidden Forest, honestly."

Hagrid continued to mutter to himself as they emerged from the cover of the trees. Hagrid continued to half drag them up the slope towards the school.

Harry and Draco looked fearfully at eachother. Sev was not going to be happy that they'd been caught.

**~~This is a line break~~**

"What were you thinking?" Snape questioned, his silky voice almost inaudible in the deathly silent potions lab.

"You could have been killed. You do realise that there are both centaurs and Acromantula living in that forest. What if the centaurs considered you a threat? What if the spiders grew peckish?" His hand slammed down on his desk in frustration and both the boys flinched.

"You are Slytherins. And as Slytherins I would expect that you think your actions through. But let me ask you this before we get to your punishment. _Why_ did you even venture into the forest in the first place?"

Draco looked over to Harry who, at that moment, looked incapable of speaking. With a sigh the blond began to explain.

"We didn't really have a _proper_ reason Uncle Sev. It was just that, well it's forbidden and we were interested to see what kind of stuff was there and then we got there and it was scary and something else was in there and Harry said it sounded like material against the leaves and we panicked and then Hagrid came along-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Snape interrupted, "What do you mean there was something else?"

Harry looked up for the first time since they'd come into the room, "It sounded like a cloak slithering across the ground. It definitely wasn't a creature dad, of that I'm certain. It would have to have been someone from the school."

Snape nodded, "I will look into it. However the matter at hand cannot be ignored. You both blatantly disregarded rules that were specifically set in place to ensure your safety. Your reasoning was disgustingly weak and I feel that the only good punishment would be one that you could continue for the rest of today. Perhaps, cleaning the dirty cauldrons. You're unlucky I'm afraid, I had third year Ravenclaws as my last class and I'm afraid that they felt it was their moral duty to... 'experiment'. Draco, begin immediately. Harry, come with me for a moment."

Draco nodded and moved towards the cauldrons, donning a pair of dragon-hide gloves as hot water magically filled the sink. Harry followed behind Severus until they had reached his small office to the side of the Potions room.

"Harry," Snape muttered, lifting his son's chin, "I'm not angry with you. I _am_ angry that you needlessly put yourself in danger but I'm not angry at you. I only ask that both you and Draco and any of your other friends be more careful in future."

Harry smiled weakly up at his father, "I understand dad. I don't know why I get so worried about you dishing out punishments but I just always panic. I'm sorry."

Snape smiled and gently brushed some of Harry's hair back, exposing the jagged scar.

"It's fine Harry. Now go clean some cauldrons."

**~~This is a line break~~**

Christmas day arrived quickly and Harry awoke to the feeling of a pillow beating repeatedly against his cheek.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up! It's Christmas! The one day of the year when I will gladly wake up early! Get up Harry! There's presents!"

The hyperactive blond leapt off of Harry's bed and clambered back onto his own, scooching down to the end and beginning to rip his way through his large pile of presents.

Harry rose slowly and crawled down to the end of his bed. Locating the gist from Hermione he opened it and smiled at the assortment of chocolate frogs she'd sent him. Neville had given him a catalogue of rare potions ingredients and Luna had sent him her self-published novel on _Amazing Creatures (So far)_. His other parents would be given to him that night when he and Draco had dinner down in Severus' quarters with the elder Malfoys.

Harry and Draco both raised their eyebrows when they noticed that Harry had an extra gift. The raven-haired boy slowly reached out and grasped the silver wrapping paper, pulling it off with a slight flick of his wrist. The wrapping fell away to reveal a silvery cloak that looked like material water.

Draco gasped at the sight and hesitantly reached out to touch it.

"That's an invisibility cloak. Holy hell. Who would send you that?"

Harry snatched up the note that had fallen from the wrapping paper.

"Apparently it's from no-one. All this says is_ I hope this serves you well. Your father left it with me before he died and I thought you might like it. Merry Christmas._ Yeah, Merry bloody Christmas to you too now who are you?!"

Draco continued to pet the cloak admiringly before looking up at Harry with a pleading look.

"Can we please try to duplicate it?

**Read, review and all that wonderful stuff. I am personally way too tired right now and I had to cut some stuff in here and chuck it in the next chapter and oh my gosh just please review. **

**BYE!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello! Um, had a slight hiccup in updating yesterday. That hiccup being that we had a faulty door on one of the bathrooms at my house and to put it really simply, I got stuck. For an hour. My dad had to break the door down to get me out of there. I now officially hate that bathroom. It sucks. Anyway onto the story **

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter to my utmost shame... **

"Dad?"

Snape lifted his head from where he'd been eating his bacon and eggs to see his son standing in the doorway to his kitchen, shifting nervously from foot to foot and fiddling with a bundle of shimmering material.

"Merry Christmas, Harry," he greeted before continuing, "What is it that you're fiddling with? A gift from one of your friends perhaps?"

Harry strode forward and threw himself into one of the straight-backed chairs around the dining table, chucking the material onto the table-top as he sat.

"I'm afraid it's not from anyone I know. It came from someone who wouldn't jolly well identify themselves. They said it was something my father had left with them, an invisibility cloak."

Harry's head snapped upwards as he heard his father's coffee cup clatter onto the hard wood of the table before Snape's hand had slammed down beside it.

"So _that's_ how he did it!" The older man exclaimed, "I always wondered...Of course it shouldn't be a surprise, considering that the Marauders never got caught. But how on earth did he get such a rare artefact. May I see it please?"

"Sure," Harry said, and he slid the cloak across the table and over to Severus who plucked it up with nimble fingers and began to study, flicking out his wand and casting multiple charms over it. Harry watched in interest as the cloak glowed first red, then blue and then a series of calming colours like greens and light blues.

When Severus paused, Harry almost reached out to grab the cloak but Snape was too fast and had stood and swung the cloak around his shoulders within a moment, letting out a small cry of surprise as his body entirely disappeared.

Harry gave his normally calm and collected father a look, "You do realise that it's an invisibility cloak, right? You didn't miss that by any chance did you?"

Snape's floating head gave his son a glare, "I know it's an invisibility cloak you oaf, however it seems to be one of a particularly different quality than the cheap pieces of material with a shoddily cast disillusionment charm. In fact, the only description of an invisibility cloak of this quality is in a wizarding fairytale."

Harry paused from where he'd been picking at the grapes piled in the fruit bowl and threw a disbelieving look at his father.

"So what you're trying to say, is that I now possess a mystical, magical cloak which appears to match the description of a _very_ mystical, magical cloak that appears in a wizarding fairytale. Have I missed anything? Because if I have I'm afraid that it's too early on Christmas day for me to even begin to comprehend anything hugely confusing."

Snape pulled the cloak off with an elaborate swirl, "You do realise that it's past ten already right?"

Harry dropped a slice of pear in mock surprise, "B-but, you're only just having breakfast. Now, I may be wrong but, are you trying to say that you slept in... late?"

His only response was a mouthful of invisibility cloak.

**~~This is a line break~~**

The floo flared bright, acid green as before Lucius appeared, neatly stepping out o the fireplace followed by Narcissa moments later. Draco let out a yell and ran forward to throw himself at him. Lucius caught his son with one arm, the other resting on his cane.

Harry came forward to take the stick and hung it on the arm of a nearby chair before being drawn into a tight hug by a smiling Narcissa.

"Draco! Harry! I'm so happy to see you boys again. The manor feels so empty without you boys there! Oh! I'm just so glad to hug you both again!" At this she reached behind her and snagged Draco from where he had been encircled in his father's arms. The two boys were squished against Narcissa before Harry was rescued by Severus and plonked down onto the couch nearest the fire.

"What's been going on at the manor?" Draco asked, "I know you must be missing me terribly, but I hope that you're able to move past the agonising heartbreak left by my absence."

He paused to regard his parents who had seated themselves on one of the plush couches by the fireplace, both of them looking amusedly at their son as he blinked his eyelashes at the two of them.

"Okay, so maybe you didn't miss me so much but you know what? I've been having the time of my life here as well. Having fun with all sorts of random stuff like classes and the library and my friends. And there's this girl, Hermione Granger, and her parents are squibs but she's still really smart and she's constantly helping us out and we help her out and I've been giving her Pureblood etiquette lessons. She's really coming along I mean, for someone who knows next to nothing about the magical world she seems to be grasping all the concepts really quickly. I do hope she is well enough up to scratch that by next Christmas we're able to invite her, Neville and Luna to our Christmas party."

Draco continued to blather on to his parents while Severus and Harry began to serve cups of a special blend of tea, a particular blend that smelt and tasted like Christmas pudding. Harry's mug had a generous amount of milk and sugar ladled into it before he was content to cuddle into one of the green armchairs nearer the tree than the fire.

Sev, Narcissa and Lucius traded conversation back and forth as they sipped on the warming tea, Harry and Draco becoming absorbed in a game of Gobstones and jumping each time they lost and the Gobstones sent a small stream of a foul smelling liquid at their faces.

It was almost noon by the time Harry and Draco had edged towards their parents and cuddled up against their knees. Snape's long-fingered hand came to rest on Harry's head, gently carding through the raven hair as he listened to Narcissa rave about Draco's latest Transfiguration mark.

Draco had leant himself up between his mother and father and had snuggled back against the couch leg, his head resting gently on his father's knee.

The conversation took a turn from school marks to the current dilemma of what was hidden within the school.

"What could be so important to Dumbledore that he would hide an artefact which could endanger the lives of students in this castle? It seems idiotic that any headmaster would allow his students to remain in danger for the sake of some random artefact." Lucius sounded annoyed as he spoke.

Severus' pale face twisted into a sneer at his words, "I think it's probably because it's so valuable to the Dark Lord."

Draco lifted his head and stared at his professor, "What do you mean the Dark Lord? I thought he was vanquished by Harry. If it were dangerous for him to value then that would mean that he would have to be, to be... alive!"

Harry turned slowly to look at Snape, afraid to see the man's face in case it confirmed that which he couldn't help but fear.

His heart fell as he saw Sev's face before he pulled up his left sleeve, exposing the faded black tattoo left there; the Dark mark. Harry hadn't always understood what that meant. He didn't want to admit the truth. The truth that haunted him every day. Voldemort wasn't truly gone. He was waiting for the opportune moment. For a certain thing. Something that would ensure his safety, his immortality.

Ever since he'd first found out about what Voldemort had done he had done studies on psychopaths like him, even going so far as to read up on the muggle Hitler, who bore a startling resemblance to Voldemort. He knew that if there was one thing that the Dark Lord feared more than anything, it was the idea of dying. Of ceasing to exist, of losing the opportunity to continue his life, to ensure that his plans continued as he'd wanted. That's why Harry knew that he hadn't truly died on that fateful Halloween.

Voldemort was still out there. He was just biding his time.

**~~~This is a line break~~~**

Harry grinned as Luna danced her way through the bustling crowd of students at the entrance of the school. The blonde glided over to him and laid a kiss on both his and Draco's cheeks before turning and dragging Hermione by the wrist towards her.

Hermione grinned at her friends. The brunette had obviously used something in her hair as the formerly bushy mess now fell in elegant curls down her back.

Harry's silent question of where she'd found a shampoo that could do the job was answered as Hermione turned to Draco and engulfed him in a bear hug.

"Thank you so much for that potion Draco! It's worked perfectly, I mean for once my hair is behaving as it should! It's the best Christmas gift ever!"

Neville shuffled towards them with a slight bashful grin before thanking them all for their Christmas presents.

"I hope you guys liked yours. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get anything better but Gran would only give me twenty sickles to buy all your presents so, well I just hope you liked them."

They quickly assured him of their appreciation before the five friends made their way up the huge staircase and toward their customary hang-out; the library.

Luna curled herself up in her corner armchair and excitedly began to explain the many revelations she'd had over the Christmas break.

"I think that what actually must be hidden inside the castle is something rather small. That's because they chose such a big space to hide it in."

Draco cut in, "Luna that doesn't make sense. I mean, wouldn't they put something small in a small place?"

Luna smiled serenely, "No that's precisely why they wouldn't put it there. I'm sure it's something small, because by putting it somewhere large it makes everyone think it's something other than the small thing it actually is."

Everyone looked at her in confusion except for Harry, who could feel his mind slowly putting the pieces together. Something that Voldemort would value. Something to ensure his continued survival. Something small. Something so important that Dumbledore would be willing to risk student's lives to keep it safe.

Draco seemed to come to the same conclusion, "Merlin's baggy underpants! It's the Philosopher's stone."

**~~~This is a line break~~~**

Harry watched Quirrell throughout the lesson, noting that the man was twitching very often, even more often than usual if that was possible. The turbaned teacher was almost shaking as he waved his wand to write instructions on the board.

Harry felt his usual headache coming on and, for once, instead of ignoring the continuous ache, he pushed back at the source; at the black energy he could feel fighting against his own mind.

He heard a voice. A conversation in fact. One in Quirrell's voice and the other in a hissing raspy voice that echoed in his mind.

"M-master. I-I believe I will be a-able t-to reach the stone tonight."

The other voice hissed back, "Then go, my faithful servant. Go and retrieve my stone so that I may once again be raised to my former glory."

Quirrell's voice answered once more, "Y-yes master."

Harry's breath left his body in a rush. Quirrell was after the Philosopher's stone. And tonight he was going to go and get it.

**~~~This is a line break~~~**

Harry and Draco sprinted down to the lower levels of the dungeons, robes flying behind them as they ran. Luna, Neville and Hermione were pulling up behind them, nipping at their heels.

Harry flew to the door just ahead of Draco and breathed out the password, "Lily!" before running through the door and into his father's private rooms.

"Dad!" he called, running to each of the rooms in turn only to find them empty.

"Professor Snape!" Hemione, Neville and Luna called in turn, checking all around the small teacher's quarters.

"Harry!" Draco called from the dining room.

Harry ran into the room and skidded to a halt in front of Draco who was holding a small piece of parchment.

"What does it say?" he asked.

Draco's eyes widened as he read further down the note.

"H-he's gone to a potions conference. He says that you don't need to worry about Dumbledore because he's at the ministry and that the other teachers are in at a staff meeting." He looked up at the others.

"I think we're on our own."

**And that's the end of the chapter. I know that it seems like I've just jumped straight into the action and admittedly I have but in my defence, this chapter has been horrible to write and I also realised that I've said like nothing about the stone so forgive me for the horrible hastened realisation of what's going on. **

**BYE!**


	14. Chapter 14

**So... I suck. **

**I'm sorry that I haven't updated recently and I have no good excuse except that the entire chapter was shit when I tried to write it. Therefore, it has been rewritten (about 6 times) and several bits have been removed or changed because I thought they suck. **

**But on a good note, Guys! THE 100 REVIEW LANDMARK HAS BEEN REACHED! **

**You are all my favourite people from now on because my ego has just been boosted big time! **

**On with the chapter!**

**Through the trapdoor they go...**

The five first years clustered around the silvery cloak that lay on Harry's bed, all internally trying to solve the dilemma of who would wear the cloak.

"I don't think that's going to cover all five of us. I don't think it could even cover three of us!" said Neville.

Draco and Hermione were both thinking hard.

"An engorgement charm?" suggested Draco, pulling his wand out in preparation.

Harry looked doubtfully between Draco and the cloak before shrugging, "We might as well try it," he bowed mockingly to the blond, "Will you do the honours, my dear, hair-obsessed friend?"

Draco sent him a glare before directing his wand towards the invisibility cloak.

"_Engorgio_," he intoned, jabbing his wand forward as if to stab the cloak.

The five friends leant in close, eyes fixed on the material.

Nothing.

"So much for that idea," said Luna, "Back to the drawing board, well, figuratively speaking of course."

The blonde pulled out her wand and promptly rapped it on the top of her head, producing a shocked sound from her four visible friends as she slowly disappeared before their eyes, leaving behind a faint translucent Luna-shaped outline.

They turned to Harry with a start when he smacked his palm against his forehead.

"Disillusionment charm! How did I not think of that? Stupid... stupid Harry!" He drew his own wand and walked over to Neville, rapping him on the head with his wand and watching with glee as the black-haired boy slowly faded into transparency.

After repeating the process with Hermione and having his offer refused by Draco who chose to do it himself, Harry swirled the invisibility cloak around his shoulders and walked softly towards the door, hearing the almost silent footsteps of his friends behind him.

Creeping through the deserted Slytherin common room they weaved their way between the chairs and through the archway that opened for them, making their way into the dimly hit hallway.

Their senses heightened, it felt as if each shadow was that of Mr Filch, each sound was a teacher raising the alarm. With great relief they rounded the final corner to the third floor corridor. However before they could take so much as a step in its direction, a bang sounded from their right.

The five jumped and quickly staggered back against the wall, watching fearfully to see who might be coming out.

Harry was the only one to let out a sigh of relief when Peeves the Poltergeist bounced out of the room throwing a piece of chalk at the board and letting out a cackle of delight when he saw the crack it created.

Neville, who by this time was feeling very, _very_ nervous, stumbled over his own feet and slid sideways, letting out a muffled yelp as he managed to bang his toe against the stone wall.

Peeves head snapped up.

"Who's there? Is it ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie? Hmm," he mumbled to himself, "Should be calling Filch I should, if there are students wandering the castle by night."

Harry thought quickly before settling on an idea.

"Peeves," he croaked, his voice a carrying whisper in the quiet corridor, "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

Peeves started and dropped a bit in the air, jaw dropping in surprise.

"Your bloodiness sir, I meant no disrespect sir. I m-mean to say that I'll be going sir." Peeves saluted shakily and began to float off down the hall.

"Peeves!" Harry called again enjoying the start his voice gave the poltergeist as he turned back around, "You will tell no-one of my visit here tonight. The results would be most... unfortunate."

Peeves stuttered an affirmative and bowed slightly before bouncing away down the hall as fast as he could.

Draco searched in the dark for Harry's hand, shaking it firmly once he'd found it.

"Brilliantly done Harry! I would bow to you but we have a job to do don't we?"

Harry nodded before remembering they couldn't see each other and instead of saying yes before shifting down the hall and towards the locked door at the end of the corridor.

Hermione's voice carried behind him and almost made him laugh, "That was my hand you were shaking Draco."

If Harry could see Draco he knew he would be blushing, "Thought it felt smaller..." he mumbled.

Luna had apparently reached the door ahead of Harry and cast an _Alohomora_, smiling happily to herself when the lock clicked open. She slid the door open silently and slipped inside, her wand held carefully in front of her as she edged her way into the room, Harry right behind her.

The two let out twin gasps as their eyes lit upon a giant three headed dog that was snoozing on the floor, its three heads brushing the ceiling when it took in breath.

"Look," Luna said, pointing towards the enchanted harp that played a simple repetitive melody.

Hermione piped up from behind them, "Do you reckon it will stop playing if we go through the trap door?"

Neville, still nursing his bruised toe asked, "There's a trap-door?"

Draco sighed irritably, "Yes! It's right there, in between the Cerberus' paws."

"Oh."

Harry nodded in answer to Hermione's question, "No-one would be stupid enough to leave an enchanted harp that would keep playing, even if someone trying to catch said person came along."

Luna grinned as her disillusionment charm wore off, "Only one thing for it then," she said before striding forward and picking up the harp.

As soon as her fingers came into contact with the smooth wood the harp's melody ceased to play. The Cerberus grumbled in its sleep and its eyelids flickered.

The five first years held their breath, Luna's coming out in a soft exhalation as her fingers found the strings and began to dance across them, weaving a complex tune that danced its way across the room, wafting around the dog whose heads begin to dip, eyes drooping, before the giant heads rested on the floor once again.

Luna continued to play the harp as she moved back towards the other first years, "So who'll be going first then?"

To all of their surprise, Neville stepped forward.

"I will. I've already screwed up once tonight. Surely I can't do it again, right?"

The others smiled and Draco clapped him on the back.

"You're such a Gryffindor," he said.

Neville strode over to the trapdoor and swung it open.

"Hufflepuff thank you very much," he said before lighting his wand with a _Lumos_ and slipping down into the darkness below him.

The four left looked at eachother worriedly when they heard a loud _FLUMP_ from the trapdoor.

"Neville!" Hermione called, "Are you alright? What's down there?"

"I'm fine Mione!" the four friends let out a sigh of relief, "It looks like some kind of vines but they don't seem to like the light very much. It's drawing away and I'm about to fall. In other words, you guys can come on down. I'm pretty much certain that this one won't kill us."

The four nodded to each other before Harry stepped forward and jumped through the trapdoor.

He felt his landing broken by a soft mattress of dense vines.

He looked at the vine beneath his right hand and was able to make out the small and relatively harmless red spines that adorned the dark vine. Devil's Snare.

Casting a _Lumos_, he smiled as the vines parted beneath him and he was dropped down to the familiar hard stone of the castle.

He turned to Neville and smiled before turning back around to watch as his friends came through the Devil's snare, Draco coming last.

They heard a cry from above them and Harry frantically called out his best friend's name.

"Drake! Are you alright?" his wand was drawn, an incantation already at his lips as he waited for his friend's answer.

"I'm fine, but this bloody plant has me hooked. I can't get out and the whole _Lumos_ things, yeah that shit isn't working!"

Harry swore under his breath before directing his wand toward the plant, "_Incendio!"_ he shouted, a burst of flame rushing from his wand and setting the Devil's snare alight. As the plant twisted and smouldered Draco dropped through in a cloud of ash and burnt plant pieces.

Hermione and Luna picked him up and brushed him off while Neville quickly shot an _Aguamenti_ at the burning plant, watching frantically for the final embers to be smothered.

Harry, Draco, Hermione and Luna watched in awe as Neville reeled complicated spells to repair the dying Devil's snare.

"Come on! Come back! It's going to be fine. You're a big beautiful plant! You're goin to be just fine. I'm here."

Harry cleared his throat and Neville whirled around, blushing as he realised that all his friends were looking at him like he was insane.

"Shall we leave you and the plant alone then Neville?" Draco asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Luna and Hermione giggled and Harry let a grin cross his features before turning serious.

"Nev, do you want to stay behind and try to fix the plant? You're probably the best guy for the job and if I'm not mistaken this is the one you've been helping Professor Sprout cultivate for most of this year."

Neville nodded, "Only if you're sure. I'm no deserter Harry, and you know that."

Harry nodded and gave Neville a hug before turning and walking down the dark hallway that stretched before him.

"Harry, you do realise you're still wearing your invisibility cloak?"

Harry looked down and blushed when he realised that he was indeed still invisible. Grinning sheepishly at Hermione he shed the cloak and stuffed it into the pocket of his track-pants.

"What's that sound?" Luna asked.

The four paused and listened, straining their ears to pick up on the sound.

Harry began to move faster, "It sounds like... birds. Why the hell are birds a test? This is so weird."

The other three nodded in agreement before continuing down the hall and towards the small white door that stood in their way.

"Wands out everyone," Harry said, before turning the handle and swinging the door out, blinding the group with the bright white light within the room.

The rushing sound of wings was almost deafening now.

Draco looked up at the winged beings flitting around the room calculatingly before remarking, "Those don't look like birds to me Harry."

Luna shook her head, "They're not birds. They're keys."

The four friends looked up at the glittering keys before quickly rushing across the room to look at the door handle.

Draco hopefully tried _Alohomora_ but was unsurprised when the door remained shut.

"Alright," he said, "We're going to be looking for a big silver key, like the lock. That or I'm completely wrong and we're screwed."

Harry nodded and looked around the circular room, a small grin lighting up his face when his eyes lit upon the three broomsticks that hung there.

He circled round to the brooms and took one down, quickly jumping on, watching as Draco leapt onto the other.

The two began to fly in lay circles around the room, keen eyes searching for the key.

"There!" Harry shouted, pointing up toward the ceiling, "That big one... oh damn it flew away. Come back!" He shot up towards the ceiling, flitting left and right behind the key. With a surge of speed he pinned it against the wall, smirking when his friend's cheers reached his ears.

He and Draco landed and rushed to the door, sliding the key into the lock and cheering again when it clicked open. After letting the battered take flight once again they collectively took a deep breath before sliding the door open and stepping into the bright room.

Towering faces met their gaze, blank pieces of marble, white and black.

"A chessboard," Draco said, "That's... different."

The other three nodded.

Harry turned to Luna, "So what do you think Lu, play our way across?"

Luna nodded, "I'll be a rook."

The blonde glided over and tapped the right hand black rook on its side. The piece slid to the side and over to a corner of the room with Luna taking its place.

She turned to the other three, "Hurry up then."

Harry took the place of a bishop and Hermione and Draco took the two knight positions.

Draco, as the agreed master of chess, took charge of the game immediately. Their first loss of their other bishop left them shocked as it was viciously whacked around the head and dragged off to the side of the board. Draco took great care to ensure that the bishop was avenged. Darting around the board he took as many pieces as they lost, careful to keep Hermione, Harry and Luna out of harm's way.

The game was almost finished. The four first years were the only black pieces left on the board.

Draco tapped his foot impatiently as he considered his options.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to be taken." He said, cringing internally as the other three cried out in refusal.

"Oh shut up the lot of you! If I do this then it leaves Luna free to checkmate the king. It's the only option so just shut up and deal with it. We need to keep that stone safe. If the teacher's won't then it's up to us alright?"

Harry, Hermione and Luna nodded reluctantly in answer to Draco's plea.

The blond gulped before making his move, three steps forward and one to the left.

The blank face of the queen turned towards him.

Without even giving him time to take a breath, the white queen had advanced and struck Draco around the head, knocking him halfway across the board with one blow.

Hermione cried out and almost stepped out of her square, but was stopped by Harry's warning.

"We've almost won. Once it's finished we can check on him alright?"

Hermione nodded, tears already streaming down her face.

Luna stepped forward five places and it was done. The white king toppled forward and the three were free to run from the board and check on the Malfoy heir.

"Harry ran his wand over the blond to run some very basic diagnostic charms, "He has a minor concussion and is currently unconscious but he should be fine. We need to move on now."

Hermione shook her head, "I'm going to stay. If anyone comes through I'll tell them that you've gone on ahead. But I can't leave him here completely defenceless, it feels wrong."

Harry nodded in understanding and was treated to a suffocating hug by the bushy haired girl before he and Luna crossed the chess board and stepped through the plain black door.

A foul stench accosted them as they crossed the thresh-hold. Before them was a troll, much larger than the one they'd faced earlier that year.

"Thank Merlin we didn't have to face that one." Harry muttered, feeling Luna nod her head beside him.

Gingerly tip-toeing their way past the troll they slipped the through yet another black door.

As soon as Luna had stepped through behind Harry the door swung closed and purple flames erupted in front of it. In front of the two first years the other door was bordered with red flames.

In the centre of the small room was a plain wooden table, not dissimilar from the ones they used in potions. On it was an array of bottles, all shapes and sizes, all containing different coloured liquids.

Luna snatched a piece of parchment from the table and began to read it through.

_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_

_Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,_

_One among us seven will let you move ahead,_

_Another will transport the drinker back instead,_

_Two among our number hold only nettle wine,_

_Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line._

_Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,_

_To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_

_First, however slyly the poison tries to hide_

_You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_

_Second, different are those who stand at either end,_

_But if you would move onwards neither is your friend;_

_Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,_

_Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;_

_Fourth, the second left and the second on the right_

_Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight_

**(Direct quote from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone)**

Harry sighed and stepped forward, carefully sniffing each potion while Luna muddled her way through the riddle.

They came to the same conclusion.

"This one will get you through the flames towards the stone," Luna said, pointing to a small rounded bottle at the end of the line.

"And that one will get you back through the purple flames to Hermione and Draco."

They both picked up their respective bottles before looking at each other.

Luna stood on her tiptoes and kissed Harry gently on the cheek.

"Good luck Harry. I know you'll be fine. I just know it."

Harry grinned down at the small blonde, "Of course you _know_. You always _know._"

Luna smiled once more before downing the liquid, shivering as a cold feeling spread throughout her body.

"It's not poison right?" Harry asked anxiously.

Luna smiled reassuringly, "No it's just like ice. See you later Harry."

With that, the blonde walked through the flames and back out the door.

Harry grasped the little bottle in his suddenly sweaty hand.

His gaze hardened.

"Bring it bitch." He said, gulping back the mouthful and ignoring the icy feeling in favour of striding through the flames wand-first.

The door swung open and revealed a tall, slim figure, complete with purple turban.

"Hello Professor Quirell.

**TADA! Longest chapter yet me-thinks, over 3000 words. My hands hurt. I don't care. I'm on a writing high. YAY!**

**Love yas. R&R and all that good stuff.**

**Hufflepufflikeslytherin**


	15. Chapter 15

**HOORAY! EXAMS ARE OVER! I CAN STOP WORRYING! I'M SO SORRY THAT IT'S BEEN TWO MONTHS SINCE I UPDATED! **

**Thems is the tough breaks methinks. I am terribly sorry it's taken me so long but I've been terribly busy with all sorts of grown up things and such. Jokes, seriously though I apologise for how long it's taken for me to write this. **

**Disclaimer: I keep asking but J.K. Rowling won't give me the rights. So *sigh* Harry Potter still belongs to J.K. Rowling and not me. I just screw around with the characters. **

_**Quick refresher:**_

_Harry grasped the little bottle in his suddenly sweaty hand. _

_His gaze hardened. _

"_Bring it bitch." He said, gulping back the mouthful and ignoring the icy feeling in favour of striding through the flames wand-first. _

_The door swung open and revealed a tall, slim figure, complete with purple turban. _

"_Hello Professor Quirrell"_

The turbaned teacher didn't even turn before throwing a silent _Incarcerous _towards Harry who neatly dodged it, slipping to the side and calmly leaning against a column that stood there. Quirrell, arrogantly believing he had caught the first year with his spell, didn't even turn to look. Hidden behind his left fore-arm, his right hand clung tightly to the dark wood of his wand while his mind was running through the best spells to throw.

He decided on a simple one first.

Carefully aiming for Quirrell's head, he cast his first spell, "_Wingardium Leviosa."_

The effect was instantaneous. The purple turban rose up from Quirrell's head to hover in the air, two feet above his head.

The robed man whirled on the spot, a look of anger marring his normally nervous features but he wasn't fast enough for Harry. He'd seen the face that resided on the back of Quirrell's head; recognised the eyes and definitely the lack of nose.

"You appear to have a dangerous creature on your head Quirrell. And no, I don't mean your face although to be honest, I think that thing counts as dangerous."

Harry's magic could sense the storm of magic about to be unleashed from Quirrell's wand and quickly spun behind the column he'd been leaning against, feeling the impact of the spells hammering against the stone.

The spells ceased and Quirrell's voice called to Harry, "You're more arrogant than I'd thought. You would think to insult me when I, I am the host of the one who destroyed your life; when the power that I may now wield is far greater than any eleven year-olds, even the power of the precious Boy-Who-Lived. I could kill you right now and no-one in this castle would ever know. Scared Potter?"

Harry rolled his eyes and tucked his wand under his arm, shooting a silent tickling curse at the Professor who had no reason to expect a silent casting from a child and was promptly left clutching at his stomach, laughing heartily. Harry could hear the man frantically trying to cancel the spell but could hear that he was having difficulties in forming any real sounds.

Harry walked past the struggling man and stood in front of the mirror. His eyes flicked up to the ornate golden framing and the engraved letters at the top; _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. _

He could feel the corners of his mouth turning down. What the hell did that mean? He paused to think, his mind trying to work faster due to the danger of the slowly calming man behind him.

It's a mirror, so maybe it's a mirror image. He read the words backwards, piecing them together until it made sense. _I show not your face but your heart's desire_. Harry grimaced and thought, what was his heart's greatest desire right now?

_To get out of here alive and with him gone._ He looked back to the mirror itself and saw his own reflection, pale and small. As he watched, the Harry in the mirror reached into his pocket. He inched closer to see what his reflection was doing when he was taken by surprise.

His breath came out in a short gasp as he was seized around the middle and thrown to the side of the room, his small body curling around one of the columns as he landed. He felt the unmistakable feeling of ropes winding around his body and almost cried out when his wand was plucked from his hand.

Quirrell smiled cruelly and kicked the young boy in the stomach, feeling a surge of satisfaction go through him when Harry let out a groan at the pain.

"Pathetic really. You are no match for m-" his voice cut off as a new one, hissing and cold, interrupted him.

"Let me speak to him."

Quirrell's hands twisted together, fidgeting with Harry's wand, "Master, you are not strong enough."

"I have strength enough, for this."

Quirrell's swallow was audible and Harry twisted in his bonds until he was facing the man. Quirrell looked down at Harry before slowly turning, showing Harry the serpentine face once more.

The words escaped Harry before he could think to stop them, "You look like shit!" Unwilling to let his embarrassment show on his face, Harry was careful to hold Voldemort's gaze.

A hissed chuckle was his first reply, "Harry Potter. Do you see what has become of me? Mere vapor, left to feed on the life of my newest servant."

"Sucks to be you." Harry mumbled, focusing his power to cut the ropes that bound him.

Voldemort continued, ignoring what Harry had said, "I do remember killing your parents you know. Your father was first. Oh, he put up a brave fight but, in the end, killing him was like swatting a fly that had pestered me for too long. That's the problem with Gryffindors; they don't know when they should just give up."

Harry snorted to cover the sound as his bindings were cut right down his back, "Yeah, poor you. Maybe if he had given up I wouldn't have destroyed you."

Voldemort was clearly beginning to lose his cool, but he continued to try and break Harry, "Your mother was next Harry. I told her to stand aside, told her she could live, but she refused. She died, in the hope that you wouldn't. Funny really. How proud of you do you think she'd be hm? Harry Potter sorted into Slytherin, best friends with a Malfoy, rude to Dumbledore and clearly good friends with the resident dungeon bat."

Harry stood and shook off the ropes, smirking at Voldemort whose face showed the slightest modicum of surprise.

"I think she's a damn sight more proud of me than your mother is of you."

Voldemort's face darkened, "Quirrell!"

Quirrell turned and trained his wand on Harry. Before the raven-haired boy could even think of dodging he heard the spell cast, and felt immense pain as it hit.

Merlin the _pain._ It felt like someone had taken hold of his bones, his muscles, his nerves and tissue and began to shred them, setting fire to each one as they went. He fell to his knees in sheer agony as the pain continued to ravage his small body. His teeth were clenched together in the effort to stop himself from screaming, unwilling to let them have that satisfaction. The curse lifted and he dragged in a breath before it started again, the pain echoing through his limbs and pounding into his head. He couldn't stop it this time. He screamed. And Quirrell stopped.

As Harry caught his breath Harry felt himself being lifted by magic and dragged to stand in front of the mirror. Quirrell's cold voice sounded in his ear, "Tell me what you see boy."

Harry felt his heavy head forced up by the same magic until he was looking his reflection in the eyes. His reflection winked and reached into its pocket, pulling out a blood red stone and winking again before dropping it back in. At the same time, Harry felt a heavy weight slip into his own pocket.

_I have the stone. Shit!_

Quirrell growled, "Well! What do you see?!"

Harry put on his best shocked face before drawing his shaking hands up to the mirror, "Mum? Dad?"

Quirrell growled again and took hold of Harry's collar, throwing the boy backwards and onto the stone floor behind him. Harry landed heavily on his back and took a deep breath, trying to stop his body shaking. Realising that it was no use he scrambled to his feet and staggered towards the door. His hand had just landed on the handle when Voldemort called.

"_He liess..."_

Quirrell whipped around and pointed his wand at Harry again, "Where is it boy? I know you have it!"

Harry reached towards his magic, startling as he saw how low it was. He realised the torture had probably used up some of his magic. He carefully lifted his hand a tiny bit and cast a silent and wandless _Accio_, smiling as his wand darted out of Quirrell's pocket and landed in his hand.

He quickly spoke, "_Expelliarmus!_"

Quirrell's wand flew toward him and he pocketed it, keeping his wand trained on the man.

Harry smirked, "I'm going to leave now."

As he began to turn Voldemort let out a horrendous shriek, "**KILL HIM!**"

Quirrell lunged forward and seized Harry about the throat, squeezing tightly. Harry gasped for breath, stars beginning to fill his vision as he ran out of air.

Then suddenly, Quirrell let go, staggering backwards cradling his hands.

"Master! My hands!" Harry desperately tried to focus and saw to his disgust, that Quirrell's hands were beginning to blister before his eyes. His jaw dropped when the blistered skin began to crumble.

Harry wasted no time and, without giving himself time to think about it, he had leapt forward and clung on to Quirrell's head with both hands.

The man screamed in agony and Harry felt a brief surge of guilt before he steeled his resolve and held on even tighter, clinching his eyes shut as pain began to spread through his forehead. He felt the pain most acutely in his scar, the ache felt like it was threatening to burst his head in half.

And somehow the pain seemed to get worse. As the pain built he began to think that he should ask for the torture curse instead.

He heard someone calling his name, felt frantic hands wrenching him away from Quirrell.

He saw black hair and smelt the familiar scent of peppermint.

"Dad..." He whispered, before falling into oblivion.

Severus Snape sat in an uncomfortable wooden chair in the hospital wing, eyes fixed on his son's face. His hand rose to sweep the hair from his charge's eyes, gently resting on the pale forehead before returning to its place in the potions master's lap. He sighed and leaned back.

It had been three days. Three days since he'd realised where Harry had gone. Three days since he'd rushed through the defenses to reach his sons side. Three days since his son had almost died in his arms.

His head came forward to rest in his upturned hands. He felt so stupid. He'd known that Quirrell was up to something. Hell, he'd threatened the man. Yet he hadn't known. Hadn't been there when his son needed him. It was _his_ fault. _He_ was the adult. _He_ should have been there to help. And _he_ had completely failed in his responsibility as a father.

Beside the potions master who was ensconced in a little pit of self-loathing, a certain green-eyed Slytherin was slowly becoming aware of the world again.

Harry blinked rapidly at the sudden increase in light. His eyes watered slightly at the faint burn the sunlight left him with. He went to lift his hand up to brush them away but felt as if his hand weighed a ton. He turned his head to the side, feeling the soft brush of a pillow on his cheek before his eyes focused on the man beside him.

"Dad..." he croaked, his voice hoarse.

He watched amusedly as the black-haired man jerked and his head flicked up, obsidian eyes meeting emerald for the first time in three days.

"Harry," he breathed, "Let me get you some water."

Severus quickly summoned the jug and a cup and carefully poured a full glass before repositioning Harry so that he could drink comfortably.

Harry drank the water eagerly, downing half the glass before his father pulled the drink away.

"Be careful Harry, you haven't eaten solid food in three days. It might make you sick." He smirked at the eleven year olds look of contempt.

"Dad!" Harry exclaimed, suddenly remembering, "What's happened to the stone. Please tell me you didn't give it to Dumbles."

Severus smirked, "No I didn't give it to the Headmaster. I sent it to back to Mr Nicholas Flamel. He told me quite a fascinating story about it, one I'm sure you'll want to know later."

Harry frowned and looked at the window opposite his bed. The light streaming in was a pale yellow.

"Is it morning already?" he asked, horrified to have passed out for so long.

Severus previous smirk broadened into a grin, "Yes it is morning. You're little adventure however, happened three days ago."

He paused to let the information sink in before Harry exploded.

"WHAT?!" The black haired boy spluttered before finding his voice again, "I missed exams! I've been working hard all year. I was going to be top of the class. What about transfiguration? I have a bet going with Minnie that I'll beat her score from first year. I can't do that now! Wait, what am I thinking? Screw exams, what about the others? Draco, Neville, Luna, Hermione; are they okay?"

Severus clapped his hand over Harry's mouth when it became clear he wasn't going to stop talking any time soon.

"Your friends are fine. Draco was healed within half an hour of entering the infirmary and none of the others were injured. You're the one they're all worried about. And I'm worried about you as well. Harry, you showed signs of nerve damage. What kind of spell did Quirrell put you under?"

Harry paused to think about it, shivering as he remembered the agonising pain.

"It was a spell, I didn't hear him say it but... it burned. It felt like someone was carefully shredding every one of my nerves into pieces and setting fire to my remains. I've never felt pain like it before. I thought the Dursley's were bad but," he shuddered, "this was something different."

Severus who, up until this point, had taken all the news fairly well, suddenly went very still and sat with his eyes closed, breathing through his mouth in an attempt to calm himself. It wasn't working.

Quirrell had cast the bloody _CRUCIATUS _curse on his son. His son had gone through unimaginable pain all because of him. He felt it when his grip on his angry magic slipped and quickly covered Harry and himself with a shield charm.

Every single one of the windows in the infirmary broke at once, flinging glass all over the stark, white room. The shards pattered against the shield as they hit, bouncing away and onto the floor. Severus held the charm until all the shrapnel had landed before silently casting a mass _reparo_ to fix the shattered glass. As the windows pieced themselves together he looked down at his son who smirked up at him, although there was a hint of awe in his eyes.

"Nice control there, dad."

Albus Dumbledore's bearded jaw was unable to stop from dropping. '_Dad?'_

This couldn't be right. Severus was meant to hate Harry. He was meant to see how similar Harry was to his father and to hate the boy's guts. That was what he was meant to do.

Dumbledore hadn't told anyone else of his plan. He wasn't stupid. They would call him cruel, delusional even. They didn't understand that it was necessary. For Harry to grow up with a strong sense of right and wrong, light and dark, good and evil. He wasn't meant to have a father figure, or any adult to trust in general. Dumbledore was going to be that person. He was meant to be Harry's mentor. He would mould Harry until the boy was willing to accept the burden of the magical world upon his shoulders. But the brat wasn't anything he'd expected.

First a Slytherin, friends with Draco Malfoy and the crazy girl from Ravenclaw, Lovegood. When he'd become friends with Granger and Neville he had some hope for the boy, but this hope was quickly squashed as he saw the attitude that the group directed towards the youngest Weasley boy.

Dumbledore frowned. He had hoped that Harry would become close friends with the Weasley family. Having the light family helping to steer him in the direction of the light would have been perfect for his plans.

And now this. This _major_ kink in his design. He pondered the way Harry had said the word. It had been said with familiarity, with the air of someone who had said the words many times to this particular person. There was no hesitation, no slight pause to show that he wasn't completely sure about the title. It had slipped from his lips without the slightest thought. Automatic.

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes dimmed as his mouth was drawn into a deep frown. That one word had confirmed what he'd suspected.

Harry and Dumbledore were far closer than mere student and teacher, and had been for quite a while.

Feeling a sudden surge of righteous anger, Dumbledore drew himself up to his full, and rather impressive height before throwing the doors open and stalking through them, lilac robes billowing behind him.

Snape and Harry both turned their head towards the door at the sound, eyebrows arching in unison at the sight of the indignant Headmaster. Dumbledore stormed down the aisle until he reached the bed on which Harry lay, right next to Madam Pompfrey's office.

"I knew it!" He hissed angrily. Snape and Harry looked at him with blank expressions.

"You tricked me. You," Dumbledore said, pointing an accusing finger at the potions master, "kidnapped Harry from his relatives care. You took him knowing precisely why he needed to stay there. No wonder he was such good friends with MR Malfoy. You probably left him there didn't you? In the company of _Malfoy's _ for Merlin's sake. And you Harry, how can you truly accept Severus as your father? What about your _true _father. He _died_ to save you."

Harry rose slowly from under the swathes of linen, standing unsteadily on the stone floor until his father's hand came up to steady him.

"You, headmaster, have overstepped your bounds as both an educator and as a magical guardian. It is not your concern whether one student should spend the holidays with their relatives or with their _legal_," he was careful to stress the word, "guardian. Professor Snape is my father, whether you like it or not. He has legally adopted me and I am perfectly contented with that. What right do you have to complain when you didn't even realise I was gone? Did you ever even check up on me as you said you were doing? Did you ever once see me at my relatives?"

Dumbledore visibly deflated, "No I did not."

Harry nodded, "I am glad of that." Dumbledore looked questioningly at him.

"I'm glad, because otherwise I would be faced with the knowledge that you knew I was being abused and still left me there. At least this way I know you were simply an ignorant old man who thought that sharing blood with someone meant that they loved you. I envy your naivety."

Dumbledore spluttered at that, "You have no right to speak to me like that! I am your headmaster and as such you must show me respect."

Harry snorted, "I'm afraid it doesn't work like that Headmaster. My father taught me that someone must earn your respect; it should not be given freely."

Snape jumped into the conversation, "You see Headmaster, I know how your mind works and so I will warn you now. If you contest my guardianship, you will have the Malfoy family and all other seats held by former Slytherin's against you. House loyalty is an amazing thing isn't it? I know that Lucius has kept in touch with all _his _old house-mates and they are more than willing to do him a favour, especially against the notoriously biased Headmaster Dumbledore. You do recall my years at Hogwarts do you not Headmaster? It seems that many of my former house-mates were rather," he paused to think about his next choice of words, "upset about my treatment at the hands of the Gryffindors and you. I am a Slytherin, I will do anything to protect that which is worth my protection. And Harry is worth all the protection I have to offer."

Albus suddenly realised something, "You took the stone! Where did you take it? It should be destroyed!"

Severus smirked up at him, "I returned it to Mr Flamel of course. It's odd isn't it Headmaster that, when I asked him, he told me it had been taken. He'd been very worried that he'd never get it back. Mad isn't it? Perhaps, in light of that piece of information, you might realise that you are definitely not in the right position to be making threats."

Dumbledore paused, regarding the two set faces before him. He knew that, should he choose to do battle with the Slytherins, they would reveal every injustice he had ever committed against them.

The old man shook his weary head and turned to leave, at the doors of the infirmary he turned to the two once more.

"I am... disappointed."

The end of year feast was well under way by the time Harry managed to slip into place beside Draco, sighing disappointedly as he realised it was dessert already. The hall was bedecked in Slytherin colours, a giant tapestry of a silver snake hung behind the head table.

The Draco, noticing his best friend's arrival, quickly punched him in the arm and glared.

"You scared the crap out of me! Snape came back out of that chamber after I'd just woken up and you looked like you were dead you twit! What were you thinking almost dying? He should have almost died, not you!"

Harry heaped his plate with spoonfuls of berries, adding a dollop of whipped cream to the mound of fruit.

"He didn't need to almost die Drake, he's dead."

Draco paused with a spoonful of ice-cream half-way to his mouth.

"Sorry, he's what?" Harry considered it a testament to the element of surprise that Draco had actually forgotten his table manners for a moment.

"He's dead Draco. I managed to kill him."

Draco furrowed his brow, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly."

The two continued to eat and chat about random things before two Ravenclaw's and a Hufflepuff accosted them, forcing the people on either side to move as they seated themselves at the table.

"Harry we were all so worried!" Hermione gushed, crushing him in a sudden hug that left him gasping for breath.

Luna smiled serenely at him and said a simple, "Hello Harry. The snargalumpfs are in your hair again."

Harry grinned at her and, after extracting himself from Hermione's hug, wrapped the blonde in a tight hug, smiling when she quickly combed through his hair with her fingers.

Neville just smiled at him, an unsaid, '_Glad you didn't die!'_ coming from him.

Talk turned to exams and Harry was relieved to hear from Hermione that they had been cancelled as 'a school treat'. Harry understood completely, still frustrated that he hadn't even had the opportunity to try and beat darling Minnie in exams. Neville, on the other hand, was as happy as the rest of the school that exams were cancelled, saying, "I still get nervous when it comes to tests. Maybe next year I'll be brave enough."

Before long the desserts disappeared and the entire school turned to Dumbledore as the old man rose with his arms spread as if he wished to hug the entire school.

"Congratulations! We have finished another year at school. To those who are leaving; Good luck. You will need it as you move forward into the world. To those who are staying, work hard so that when you too leave this school, luck will be the only other thing you need. Now the house points stand thusly; Gryffindor in last place with 298 points, Hufflepuff in third with 367 points, Ravenclaw in second with 420 points and Slytherin win the house cup with a grand total of 480 points." The hall erupted into cheers, Slytherin clapping louder than the rest in pride of their house.

"However," Dumbledore called, "In light of recent events, I have more points to give out. To Mr Neville Longbottom, for outstanding work in repairing a dangerous plant and for true loyalty, I award Hufflepuff 50 points!" The yellow and black table broke into applause, some of the members making their way over to Neville at the Slytherin table to pat him on the back. To his friends' amusement, the black haired boy blushed crimson as two fifth year girls kissed him on each cheek before running back to their table.

Dumbledore waited until the cries died down before continuing, "To Ms Hermione Granger, for healing a friend and sending for help, I award Ravenclaw house 50 points." One of the tables in the middle repeated Hufflepuff's performance, only this time, two seventh year boys came to solemnly shake Hermione's hand.

"To Ms Luna Lovegood, for the cool use of logic in the face of fire, I award Ravenclaw 50 points!" Ravenclaw's were slightly more hesitant to approach Luna but soon enough, two of the seventh years came forward and shook both her hands at the same time, making the dreamy blonde girl giggle.

"Now," and the hall descended into silence, "To Mr Draco Malfoy, for the most exquisitely played game of chess that Hogwarts has ever seen, I award Slytherin 50 points!" Slytherin broke into applause and Draco looked up to the Head table to see his godfather nodding toward him, obviously proud.

"And finally, for bravery and strength, doing what had to be done to protect the students of this castle, I award 60 points, to Mr Harry Potter, of Slytherin."

The hall exploded, hearty cheers sounding from the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Most Gryffindors pouted at having lost the house competition by such a land slide however the Weasley twins were on their feet, cheering louder than anyone else in the hall.

"Congratulations again Slytherin. This makes the seventh year in a row."

Harry smiled up at his father.

Life was good.

**And that's it! That's first year. Well pretty much. I've decided that there are some events I'd like to add and some chapter need revising so this will be edited and revised but none of the new stuff will change the storyline. It will merely add to it. **

**Please review. I know I don't deserve it but I'd like it. **

**Hufflepufflikeslytherin**


End file.
